THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510270073
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
WHAT AILS Carol White anyway?
There is definitely something wrong with her. In ``Safe,'' the endlessly tedious new film directed by the obsessive Todd Haynes, much time is spent just chronicling that this woman is, well, shall we say, ``peculiar.''
After that, there's preaching that we should all be ``aware'' of the chemicals around us. Then, we're sent home with no more hope than the fact that she, after hours of suffering before our very eyes, can look into her mirror and at least say ``I love you.''
We're glad, Carol, but could we have a dramatic payback, ANY kind of payback, for our sympathy and loving attention? ``Safe'' runs about as slow as molasses on a cold morning, and isn't half as sweet.
This is not in any way to denigrate the supposed theme, which is chemicals, toxins, what-have-you, in the air. The malady is called ``Twentieth Century Disease'' in the director's publicity notes (even though he doesn't bother to call it anything in the film itself). Yes, one supposes we should be ``aware'' of the air around us, and of making it better, but the theme needs more dramatic development than we have here.
In the opening scene, we see Carol being bored while her husband gratifies himself with sex. Then she wanders around, slowly. She gets sick from the fumes put out by a truck ahead of her in traffic. She gets sick from the chemicals in her permanent wave. She whines, mildly.
As played by Julianne Moore, she is a curiously passive creature about it all - whining a little, but never making enough fuss to wake up the audience. Her husband is a tolerant but somewhat selfish man who painfully puts up with her ``condition.'' When the doctor says there is nothing physically wrong with her, a psychiatrist is sought.
Eventually, she ends up in a New Mexico commune where like-minded souls are concerned with getting away from the 60,000 chemicals that are said to be a part of our daily life. She retreats to a ``safe house'' which is something like a plastic bubble with good ventilation.
Surely the message, in this case, should not be blamed upon the messenger. This is an important subject and one that, somehow, should be dramatized in a way that wouldn't put audiences to sleep.
The central dramatic question is, after all, a compelling one, when we can find it. It is whether California housewife Carol White is mentally or physically ill. The first hour of the film establishes, in excruciating detail, that something is wrong with her.
It becomes increasingly clear, though, that Carol has some kind of physical ailment - and that it is caused by the modern world around her. At this point, we, rightfully, wonder what we can do about it. In lieu of not driving a car home from the theater, what, after all, is our duty? The filmmaker is vague about suggesting any solutions - just problems.
``The Twentieth Century Disease,'' or any other disease, deserves a more compelling dramatic treatment than this. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Safe''
Cast: Julianne Moore, Xander Berkeley, Dean Norris, James LeGros
Director and Writer: Todd Haynes
Music: Ed Towney
MPAA rating: R (one scene of simulated sex)
Mal's rating: One 1/2 stars
Location: Naro in Norfolk by CNB