SAFE
A film review by Vince Deehan
Copyright 1997 Vince Deehan
Written and Directed by Todd Haynes. Cast: Julianne Moore, Xander Berkeley, Steven Gilborn, Peter Dunning, Kate McGregor Stewart and James LeGros.
I have heard many good things said about [SAFE], with people often either wildly in love with the movie or completely bored by it. I found this reaction quite intriguing since films which can provoke such a different response in people are usually worth watching, if only to see which response you will give. I had the chance to see Todd Haynes' film POISON last year at London's National Film Theatre and I have to say that I did not enjoy it. In fact, I was literally desperate to get out of the cinema - I really couldn't wait for it to end. This was an unusually strong reaction for me, normally films either interest or bore me but I can usually manage to wait patiently till the end before leaving the cinema. With this in mind, I have avoided seeing [SAFE] until now, but I have seen so many positive comments about this film lately that I thought I'd give it a shot. I am delighted to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it and I would recommend the film to others.
[SAFE] tells the story of a Texan housewife (or "home-maker" as she prefers to call herself) Carol White , played by Julianne Moore. She now lives in California with her husband Greg (Xander Berkeley) and his son Rory. Carol seems a bit vacant and has a baby-doll voice which was almost grating at first, but I soon got used to it. When we first meet Carol she seems very fragile but is well enough, but soon she starts to become weak and listless and is overcome by a coughing fit when out driving one day. She also gets a spontaneous nose-bleed at the hairdresser and gets what seemed to me to be a panic attack (but apparently was extreme difficulty in breathing) whilst at a friends birthday party. Her own doctor can find nothing wrong with her and sends her off to a psychiatrist, thinking that her problems are really psychological. The psychiatrist is terribly unhelpful and tries to get Carol to do all the talking with no prompting, which the very reticent Carol finds very difficult.
Carol happens upon a flier in her local gym which talks about the effects of fumes on people's health. Carol writes to these people and soon she discovers that she probably has Environmental Illness, which is the term used to describe people who have become intolerant of some of the chemicals in use in everyday life. Not long after Carol suffers what appears to be a total body allergic reaction , or anaphylactic shock, when she walks into her dry-cleaners whilst it is in the process of being fumigated. This serious life threatening reaction gets her taken into hospital immediately, where her own doctor is still unable to find anything wrong with her. He is aware that Carol is clearly hyper-sensitive to certain chemicals but says that he can find no evidence that her immune system is being attacked or depressed. Not long after this Carol admits herself to a safe haven she has heard of in the desert, where other people with her problem can retreat to, for a cleaner environment.
At the retreat, called Wrenwood, she is immediately welcomed by the staff and she at last feels that her problem is being acknowledged. At the Wrenwood she meets Peter Dunning who is described, in the film, as being a chemically sensitive man with AIDS. Peter acts as leader for the group and gives talks on how best to approach their healing. His belief is that as the outside world is cold, cynical and hateful it is therefore best to look within ourselves to heal ourselves. He teaches them that in some way we are the cause of our own illnesses and that if we are full of anger and hate that this may trigger off illness and will certainly be a hindrance to any possible healing. The director of the haven, Claire, is also environmentally sensitive and tells Carol soon after she arrives , that her own healing was greatly helped by nurturing her ability to love herself.
I am fully aware, as I write, that much of the last few sentences sound terribly corny, but the beauty of this film is that it doesn't treat these notions of self-help as anything but a completely viable and sensible form of treatment and, given that there is no conventional treatment for their illness, it seems totally plausible that these ideas may have much merit.
The illness itself, Environmental Illness, is very real although it may well have a different medical term. I know of one case in this country (the UK) where one lady was no longer able to live in her own home because of her intolerance to certain chemicals and now has to live in a specially designed safe tent where she can live much more safely. The disease is very tragic because it is basically an allergy to everyday life and therefore has devastating effects on its sufferers who may be unable to live with their families in case they bring them into contact with some chemical which may trigger a dangerous allergic reaction. Indeed, in the film we see that Carol is barely able to hug her husband because of a chemical which she thought may have been in his cologne.
I can't help but feel that I am perhaps taking this film to literally and that there is an underlying meaning that I am missing, but I don't know what it is. This bothers me since I feel certain that I am missing something, perhaps something profound . Other reviews have , I think, spoken of the illness as a possible metaphor for AIDS. I guess the fact that the immune system seems to be affected in both diseases and that both illnesses can cause people to be excluded from society (although excluded for different reasons : the environmentally ill because of the pollutants in society and AIDS sufferers because of some people's prejudiced views) would lead people to think this. I feel that this was probably not Todd Haynes' intention , not least because one of the sufferers in the film is said to have AIDS. I'll have to check out other people's reviews to see what other people think about this.
The soundtrack to the film is wonderful and was written and performed by Ed Tomney. It's mostly synthesisers and just sounds so right for the movie. The cinematography by Alex Nepomniaschy is very crisp and clear with some wonderful images of the desert landscape around the retreat. I particularly liked the quick shots of the passing towns and countryside as Carol travelled to the retreat. One odd thing about the movie was that there were virtually no close-ups of the actors faces. This is unusual and is something I haven't noticed before. The strange thing about it is that for much of the movie I had a hard time recognising Carol's husband from scene to scene because we never get to see his face close enough to really register his features. Over the course of the movie I began to register his face more through repeated exposure, but I found this strange and I am not entirely sure what the point of this was. This applied to all the actors, who we never get that close too in the frame. In particular, I didn't recognise the actor James LeGros until after 10 minutes into his appearance simply because we never really got a good close look at his face. I think I liked this effect but I am at a loss as to explain why the director chose this style and to what significance we are meant to attach to it.
Julianne Moore gives a great performance as Carol and is, I think, in every single scene of the film. It says a lot for her immense talents as an actress that she can create an interesting character who says not very much and is fairly inarticulate and yet she holds our attention throughout the film. Kate McGregor Stewart was great as the retreat director and was particularly touching when she gave Carol some advice on how best to approach her healing. James LeGros is a very versatile actor who seems to change his appearance a lot , you'd hardly recognise him from his roles as the flashy actor in LIVING IN OBLIVION and as Kyra Sedgwick's college friend in SINGLES. LeGros was very good in a small role as a fellow sufferer who cooked up a pasta supper with Carol for the whole retreat one night. He also gives a surprise birthday cake to Carol which leads to Carol giving a just about coherent thank you speech. Julianne Moore's acting here was terrific as she falteringly spoke in disjointed sentences that seemed utterly natural.
Todd Haynes' script was very sharp , every word was vital to the story and there was no pointless chatter put in for the sake of it. His writing of Carol's birthday speech was particularly brilliant. I would imagine that this film will not be to all tastes because not a great deal happens and the whole film unfolds quite slowly but I found the whole film engrossing. The central ideas that we can assist in our own healing is certainly not a new idea in medicine but it is one that doesn't get talked about much, and I was glad that this film chose to do so.
Review written by Vince Deehan on Wed 12 March 1997. e-mail: vince@deehan.demon.co.uk
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