 10 Apr 2007 @ 01:49, by Unknown
Carol's immune system is compromised by an "environmental illness," an all-encompassing allergy to chemicals that has baffled the medical establishment and gained the moniker "20th Century Disease." Helpless, she turns to a self-help organization that leads to greater isolation from the real outside world.
(...)
Conventional cinematic cues that usually tell viewers how to respond are avoided. Safe breaks the Hollywood mold by not using close-ups and other audience-controlling devices. The film minimizes manipulation, letting the viewers make up their own minds through subjective perceptions. Haynes refuses to judge his characters or subject them to the ridicule to which a mainstream film would resort.
Indeed, the film's subtlety was mistaken by some viewers as endorsement of dubious fads, as if promoting New Age philosophies and places like Wrenwood, the "Wellness Center." In actuality, the film is critical of New Age therapies, perceiving them as a trap no better than the mindless materialism that defined Carol's life. Arguably, the film is more of an indictment of New Age medicine than of California's bourgeois lifestyle. The chilling conclusion shows how Carol's self-imposed exile is carried to an extreme. Standing in front of a mirror, with a blank expression on her face, Carol says repeatedly, "I like you."
---Emanuel Levy
A complete truly excellent review by Emanuel Levy of this quite remarkable movie can be accessed here.
Emanuel Levy is the author of Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film (NYU Press, paperback 2001).
The movie, such as it is, is one of those that leaves a great deal of room for interpretation. No easy answer here, and it will keep most viewers thinking back and again about some of the questions it raises and some of its protagonists long after watching it.
|
|
