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"Safe" is sort of like "The Exorcist" in reverse. Julianne Moore plays a woman in such denial about her severe unhappiness that her body seems to take her over. She gets treated for environmental sensitivity, which is just smokescreen for escaping her truly awful suburban existence. She is a weak, shallow, childish, ignorant woman living a meaningless existence in a sterile, cavernous suburban California home with a husband who doesn't give a rat's ass about her. When she does escape, she begins the slow process of self-realization and the path to happiness. Director Haynes is walking a tightrope with this one. Is this an activist film attacking our industrially and chemically toxic world? An unflinching chronicle of a woman's psychological shutdown? A satire of modern society's reliance on medicine and "quick cures?" A thriller about an "ordinary" woman overtaken with paranoia, where the villain is the entire world rather than a murderer? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. It's an extraordinary effort, aided by Moore's seductive, brilliant performance. Haynes is a genius. His visual style in this film is hypnotic. "Safe" is a gem.
score 8/10
dissidenz 18 May 2005
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1082809/ |
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29-11-2019 22:41:31