Underseen Movie: 'Safe' (1995)

I am thankful that I live near New Beverly Cinema as it has served as a great film school for me, and has allowed me to see movies I might otherwise not watch. Case in point is the 1995 movie "Safe" which marked a huge breakthrough for its director Todd Haynes and its lead actress Julianne Moore. I do when it was first released and of film critics like Roger Ebert singing its praises. It also came out at a time when movies like these played in cities far from where I lived, and getting out to see them felt impossible. Seeing it now at the New Beverly felt especially vital considering that it's not currently available on DVD.

Anyway, Julianne Moore plays Carol White, a suburban homemaker who is comfortably married with a stepson and spends her days either around the house, going to her local aerobics class, or having lunch with friends. But one day after driving down Olympic Boulevard, she ends up coughing uncontrollably after driving behind a big truck whose exhaust seeps right into her air conditioning system. This marks the beginning of an acute sensitivity to just about every chemical known to the human race. Coughing uncontrollably however becomes the least of her problems as she later suffers nose bleeds, develops asthma-like symptoms, and ends up convulsing at the local dry cleaners.

Carol is said to have developed multiple chemical sensitivity, otherwise known as MCS or the "Twentieth-Century Disease." This is still seen as a very controversial diagnosis which remains unrecognized by the American Medical Association. "Safe" however is not out to prove that MCS is a threat to us all or not. It looks at how a disease can forever change the way we look at ourselves and of how we view the world around us.

"Safe" also gets deep into that anxiety-ridden place in our psyche which goes haywire when our safety zone gets violated by forces beyond our control. We feel Carol's agony throughout because we all collectively fear getting a disease that either has no clear diagnosis or an available cure. When you end up going through lord only knows how many doctor's appointments where it feels like nothing's working, it really wears you and your loved ones down to the point of desperation.

The movie gets even more horrifying when Carol travels to a resort in the New Mexico desert called Wrenwood. Designed to help those afflicted with MCS, it really seems more like a cult. Instead of finding ways to deal with this condition to where people can function normally in their daily lives, its leader Peter Dunning (the excellent Peter Friedman) subtly enforces his fear of the chemical world on his patients. Peter comes in the guise of a very friendly person with the best of intentions, but we all know where good intentions lead.

Director Todd Haynes, working with a minimal budget, makes "Safe" feel all the more real in portraying suburban life in the San Fernando Valley without making it corny or the least bit campy. All the characters are complex and the kind we recognized from our own lives, and the agitation they experience feels unnervingly vivid. Adding to this sense of dread is an excellent ambient score by Ed Tomney which deftly illustrates the growing anxiety of the film's main character. Todd brings out the best in each of his actors, and he lets them become their characters instead of just playing them.

Julianne Moore has become one of those actors whose talent we've taken for granted. She's consistently excellent in everything she does, and that includes the crappy movies as well ("Body of Evidence" anyone?). But her performance in "Safe" is a revelation as she sucks us right into her character's dilemma and of her turning inward and away from others. The whole movie really rests on her shoulders, and Julianne shows no vanity in her portrayal. She literally becomes the character before our very eyes to where she looks emaciated and close to being incapacitated for good. It's a deeply affecting performance that makes you want to reach out and hug her.

"Safe" ends on an ambiguous note, leaving it up to the audience to guess what will eventually become of Carol White. This will drive a lot of the mainstream audience crazy as they demand to have things explained in full detail. But a movie like this cannot and should not offer easy solutions. How can it? We got caught up in Carol's ordeal to where we felt like we were in her shoes. Personally, I hope she finds a way to overcome her circumstances, but that may just be wishful thinking.

I'm really glad I finally got to see "Safe," and I hope more people check it out assuming it ever gets re-released on DVD or makes a Blu-ray debut. It stays with you in a way few movies do. It also leaves us with a haunting image of a person seen from a distance, completely covered with clothing to where they are hiding every part of their body from the world. Arcade Fire may sing about the body being a cage, but what happens when we put another cage over it? It all reminds me of a line from a song by Peter Gabriel:

"The more we are protected, the more we're trapped within."

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