THE SAFETY OF OBJECTS []
Dysfunction in the ‘burbs. Running time: 121 minutes. Rated R (sexual content and language). At the Union Square, the Lincoln Square and the First and 62nd Street.
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‘THE Safety of Objects” opens with a drive-by glimpse into the lives of four neighboring suburban families that seems to lay the groundwork for a Todd Solondz-esque look at superficially straight, but actually dark and complex, lives.
Sure enough, there are secretive oddities – a young boy has a disturbingly close “relationship” with his sister’s Barbie doll – but director Rose Troche has smushed so many of them together that no single one is given room to breathe.
Blame this on the all-too-obvious fact that Troche (“Go Fish”) has adapted the screenplay from a collection of short stories by A.M. Homes.
Although deft editing provides neat segues, “Safety” suffers from a case of too many dramas, too little time. Characters are given no chance to develop and, too often, their behavior turns on a dime, hurtling off into a parallel universe of extreme acts.
For example, Dermot Mulroney’s workaholic lawyer, who is passed over for promotion, plays hooky from the office and inexplicably decides he’ll find self-worth by helping his neighbor Esther (a superb Glenn Close) win an SUV for her daughter in a radio-sponsored contest at the local mall.
Esther is trying to make it up to her sullen teenage daughter (Jessica Campbell) for neglecting the girl while she keeps a tearful vigil at the bedside of her comatose son, Paul (Joshua Jackson).
The formerly charismatic singer in a band, Paul was injured in a car crash and now lies in a vegetative state in his bedroom – where he can apparently be glimpsed from just about every neighboring window.
He’s the weak adhesive that is supposed to bind the narrative together, but there are altogether too many trite, overly familiar tales of dysfunction – like the struggling single mom (Patricia Clarkson) who was having an affair with Paul, and his strange bandmate (Timothy Olyphant) whose younger brother was killed in the same accident, among others.
Troche would have done well to leave the sprawling ensemble pieces to pros like Robert Altman and winnow back the number of subplots – making sure to keep on board the protean, always watchable Mulroney.