I just love the scene where Carol discovers that they delivered a *gasp* black couch to her home ("no, we wanted teal, we ordered teal!")
When Julianne Moore walks into the living room and says, with a stunned/shocked look, "oh my god" (and almost drops her copy of Vogue:), you expect to see a dismembered body on the floor or something.......
that always cracks me up:)
when you spot your flower, you can't let anything get in your way.
a moment in the film that truly disturbs me whenever i think about it/remember it, is the scene in Greg and Carol's bedroom after her trip to the beauty parlour............he's in his t and boxers, telling her he likes what they've done with her hair "yeah.......sexy". The shot goes to him, smiling at her, then his smile fades, and he moves, purposefully, to the foot of the bed..........
he lifts his head as he says 'how ya feeling?' with his eyes moving from the ground up to her in an indescribably creepy way. Xander Berkeley is frigging great in this little moment ~ he infuses this mundane question to his wife with such palpable threat and impending hostility, it makes your flesh crawl. When Carol doesn't respond immediately, he pokes her with "huh?" and the warm tone he had professing his compliments has vanished.............and you get the feeling that with that one word, Carol knows exactly how the rest of this is going to go.
Berkeley plays this scene with such a subtly menacing air..........almost frighteningly predatory.........
it's such a beautifully done scene, all around...............it tells you everything you need to know about their marriage........and gives you a glimpse of some of the 'horrific' aspects of being the perfect surburban housewife..........
seriously, these people (and the way they're filmed/dramatized) truly disturb me more than anything else I can think of in recent horror films.
when you spot your flower, you can't let anything get in your way.
When Carol is staying at the spa in the desert, we see a person who has totally wrapped himself with clothes and is staggering in the background. The music cues in with a haunting rattle. That was a spooky scene. Also the ending, of course, was great when Carol looks at herself in the mirror and accepts herself, loves herself. Very beautifully done.
more later......
Harsh stone white, eyes behold, bruise baths soak crying bones. Every day's appeal to stop
Yeah......all the glimpses we get of 'Lester', wrapped up like a mummy and wandering the distant fringes with that freaky drugged-up chicken walk......very spooky; and the 'explanation' for his condition: "he's just very very afraid; afraid to eat, afraid to breathe......"
Another spooky scene is the scene where Carol arrives at Wrenwood and Nell(?) comes out, yelling "go back! go BACK! you're contaminating this entire area!" . Then as Carol drags her oxygen tank and floral-patterned bags across a barren landscape, Nell says, in the creepiest way, "I see you", then slowly pulls her surgical mask back up over her blank face, to the sound of empty cans banging in the wind.
From that brief scene, we get the feeling that this is not a friendly place ~ not a place that will foster life or be conducive to any kind of true intimacy.
Minutes later, Carol meets a few of the 'friendlier' residents and we think this may be a good thing for her after all.........
ah, but that first eerie impression stays with us ~ and for me, it colours everything else that follows at Wrenwood.
when you spot your flower, you can't let anything get in your way.
I think much has been mentioned about Carol's 'attack/breakdown' in the baby shower scene........and it's one of my favourite scenes in the film, for many reasons......
*Spoilers*
(not anything that 'reveals' anything necessarily, but it's the kind of scene you might want to watch on your own before reading a discussion about it:)
Something I didn't pay particular attention to the first couple times I saw it was the fact that the scene comes right on the heels of the scene with Carol at the psychiatrist ~ the therapist says "we really need to be hearing from you; what's going on in you?", cut to Carol sitting blankly on his couch.....then cut right to the shower scene....
a few minutes into it, Carol goes to the ladies' room........and here, she looks at herself in the mirror (significant as a parallel to the final scene I think). Julianne Moore is great here ~ you can tell she's not looking at herself to check her makeup (although she does that fleetingly), you can tell she's just looking at herself. And if this were a cheezy tv-movie, we'd hear an echo voice-over of the doctor saying 'what's going on in you?' as she gazes at her reflection........but none of that here.
Another interesting thing........the last shot of her looking at herself in the mirror (shower scene) turns out to be a reflection; it's one of those scenes where what you think you're seeing isn't exactly what you thought. In essence, we haven't been looking at the 'real' Carol, just her image (maybe Carol's not ready to look at her 'real' self yet?).
As she closes the bathroom door to return to the party, a very low, almost inaudible 'hum' begins, and proceeds to ever so gradually get louder and louder, climaxing in the moment Carol starts to shake. It's almost as though this tiny moment of 'self-reflection' (no pun intended) is too much for Carol at this point; she's not ready to go there yet. And the musical cue (the start of that low hum) is almost suggestive that for Carol, the prospect of having to explore herself is terrifying. She wants to get better, and she's trying.......but she's not quite yet equipped to do the work (self-examination) necessary to get there........
Or perhaps her looking at herself in the bathroom did inspire her to investigate what was 'going on in her'.......then, when she returned to the grotesquely vacuous party of Stepford Wives and looked around her, she finally realized what an empty, decadent, emotionally dead existence she'd been leading and just flipped out (I like this take myself:)
when you spot your flower, you can't let anything get in your way.
Wonderful observations...I'm watching the film now as I type. Julianne Moore plays this character perfectly. SAFE is food for thought; full of subtext and paradoxes. A film that may bother those who look for easy answers and neat endings.
Adding on to your observations, the scene when Carol (Julianne) goes into the cleaners where they are spraying (that buzzing noise again, very quickly crescendoing), she falls and goes into convulsions. Cut to Carol in the hospital. Her doctor gets perturbed with Carol, stating that there is nothing physically wrong with her.
This clues me in that there is something more going on with this character that is not really about the "chemicals".
FEAR seems to one of the central themes of the film. Not feeling "safe" within one's own skin, one's own life. Looking / living outside of one's self, and living in fear, instead of inward. Living "artificially" and inauthentically. Hiding behind belief systems as denial (going from one to the next in an attempt to escape the pain, the harsher realities, oneself). Not questioning, blindly following, suppressing the true pain of being alive (The woman at Wrenwood who lost her husband, and being made to feel she was inappropriate with her feelings of anger because somehow it wasn't "spiritual" to have those feelings). The traps of belief systems; the paradoxes of life. Needing to rebuild the "self", to ultimately confront our pain and fears; to find balance.
Paraphrasing a line from the film: "Everything got taken away from me, everything in the material world. And what was left, was ME."
This is a deep, important film, however flawed it may seem to be to some.
SAFE is one of my favorite films of the past 10 years, and gets better and deeper with each viewing for me.
A quote by Gary Zukov comes to mind, "Feel the pain, and the pain will lose its power."
'FEAR seems to one of the central themes of the film. Not feeling "safe" within one's own skin, one's own life. Looking / living outside of one's self, and living in fear, instead of inward. Living "artificially" and inauthentically.'
Wonderful comments Mike:)
'living outside of one's self'
Honestly, I think you've hit the central problem/issue that the film addresses.
'The woman at Wrenwood who lost her husband, and being made to feel she was inappropriate with her feelings of anger because somehow it wasn't "spiritual" to have those feelings'
Yes!!
Such a telling moment, eh? This place that trumpets 'getting in touch with oneself' is peddling nothing more than ANOTHER 'construct' of 'how one should behave'. It's just as stifling/reality-smothering as Carol's vacuous/superficial 'life' as an upper-middle class wife.
there is a harmony in our voices that is a comfort if you choose to listen.
It's a beautiful film, with one of the most intelligent commentaries I've ever heard. I have long been a fan of Julianne Moore, but hearing her describe her noticeably higher vocal tone in SAFE as intentional, as indicative of Carol's disconnection even from her optimal register... beautiful. This movie is amazing.
shareVery, very deep observations! This film is incredible
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Just as an alternative to the unfriendly view of Nell's "I see you"...which I agree isn't the friendliest thing...
It's quite possibly the first time in a long while that Carol feels SEEN. I get the impression that no one's really SEEN her for a long time. Sure she's been around people, but are those real exchanges? Given the comments (accentuated by the commentary) at the baby shower...the whole "I've seen you wrap things" comment... She's trying so hard to fit into that world and be seen.
Just an alternative/expansive thought.
Carol's reaction when told a black couch had originally been ordered - "thats impossibe - it wouldn't go with anything else we have" is the one time she seems certain about anything. Black couches are of course the cliched accessory of psychoanalysis/psychiatry.
The daytime scenes in the White's house have an air of the nursing home or mental hospital. The small army of Hispanic staff treat Carol with the professional indifference of institutional care staff.
"Just as an alternative to the unfriendly view of Nell's "I see you"...which I agree isn't the friendliest thing...
It's quite possibly the first time in a long while that Carol feels SEEN. I get the impression that no one's really SEEN her for a long time."
I think this is a brilliant point :)
Watching Carol, one almost gets the impression that she's used to 'not being seen'. I think that's what makes the birthday scene so moving to me......Carol is being singled out and 'celebrated', and you get the impression that it might be the FIRST time anyone has 'made a fuss' over her. Watching Julianne Moore in that scene almost makes me cry.
very insightful comment jordangirl :)
Another tidbit: just before she has an "episode" holding the little girl at the baby shower, the little girl keeps interrupting Carol's conversation to show her the drawing she's working on, "Look, it's YOU!"
shareAlso, when he visits her at the end, after spending a couple of days, we find out it is her birthday. But it is not her husband, but the group at Wrendwood who celebrate it with her. In the hair/bed scene, when she turns down his advance, he becomes seriously angry. But at Wrenwood, she's not allowed to become angry at her husband, who treats her like a hosebag. So she's in an impossible situation.
shareYou know, now that I'm reading these insightful comments, it's incredibly selfish of her husband to ask for a hug after she reacts with whatever he's wearing. I mean, the man made her physically ill, but he still wants that intimacy for himself. It's so inconsiderate.
I've been reading a few reviews, and while I initially thought watching the move that Wrenwood was a place for her to heal, after mulling it over, it becomes more and more creepy. One scene that stands out for me is when the creepy AIDs guy is instructing everyone that they made themselves sick, and that love is the answer or whatever. I don't believe that, and think it's contradictory to the notion of healing. I think Carol was actually physically ill, but this was complicated by the distance she felt in her life.
The last scene was so chilling, because she's so completely isolated, and it seemed like she was getting worse, not better. I mean, I noticed she had the oxygen the entire time she was in Wrenwood, the supposedly "safe" place. I thought that was an interesting commentary in the film, that she needed the oxygen when she finally got to someplace that was meant to make her better.
ah i totally agree, the last scene is great but terrifying.
id have to say i love the scene in which you first see the SEVERE 21st century disease victim, the one on the cover, walking like a spider, thats so weird and sad but so good.
i also liked the party, how ugly everything was, and all the shots of their home and backyard were great too.
ahi dunno if i could rate my favorite
I saw parts of this recently on "Flix" or one of the other channels in the "Starz/Encore Superpack" ...
I had to respond to the "incredibly selfish" comment. Even if "selfish" is the right word, I can't see it being a negative thing. OK, so the husband may have been a bit inconsiderate, but considering all the hell he'd been put through, dealing (as we the audience are trying to do) with a woman who's otherwise healthy, and has a questionable possible mental health issue, it's tough.
I mean, he's her husband, and creep or not, he helped her do what she "needed" to do to "get through" whatever she was going through. But she's his wife. This person, whom he married, with whom he had a child, this beautiful fragile part of his life... It must just be tearing him apart that his wife is ill by his presence. It's all he can do to be near her without her being sick, and he longs for the touch and intimacy of his wife. Darn straight he's being selfish. He's male, he's human, and he wants his wife back from before all this.
It was a weird thing, I'll admit, that he left the day or two before his wife's birthday. That I couldn't figure out. He should have known and should have stayed.
But, it really isn't just Carol's story. Carol's changes affected both husband and son permanently and possibly irreparably. I understand a bit of this first hand. It is incredibly hard to deal with the changes brought about by the unexplainable. So, like I said, selfish? maybe, but that shouldn't necessarily be held against him (although he wishes SHE would - pun intended.)
'It's all he can do to be near her without her being sick, and he longs for the touch and intimacy of his wife. Darn straight he's being selfish. He's male, he's human, and he wants his wife back from before all this.'
But moviewatcher.....there was never any real 'intimacy' between them.
Up until Wrenwood, Greg's 'interest' in Carol seems about as 'intimate' as a guy's relationship with a blow-up doll/girlfriend. He 'loves' her as far as she fulfills his (shallow imo) needs as a 'trophy wife'.
Almost every scene between Greg and Carol before she gets sick is laced with contempt (him for her) in some way. Greg's son, Rory, treats Carol with ZERO respect (learned from daddy?) and Greg does nothing to 'correct' this (watch the scene where Rory reads his essay on assault weapons in L.A., for example)
there is a harmony in our voices that is a comfort if you choose to listen.
'But, it really isn't just Carol's story. Carol's changes affected both husband and son permanently and possibly irreparably.'
moviewatcher, I must disagree with you here........
is there any proof that what's happening with Carol affects the son (Rory) at all? Their relationship couldn't be more distant ~ and moreover, the son treats Carol as though he's superior to her (which I think is very telling about the foundation of their 'family unit')
Moreover, I further disagree that this 'isn't just Carol's story'.
I think that it is.
I see the husband and stepson as being peripheral characters, and in my opinion, they are only presented to give us insight to Carol's existence.
Having said this, I appreciate that you seem to be relating to the film on a very personal level........I just don't think that the filmmakers are particularly concerned with telling that story.
there is a harmony in our voices that is a comfort if you choose to listen.
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I get that he's human and we all want intimacy from our spouses (Did you know this isn't only a male issue and women miss sex too?) but it was clear to me that he did not have a very deep relationship with Carol, one of the many things about this movie that touched on the superficiality of their environment. I found their relationship confusing because I'm never certain if he's supportive of her or putting up with this until he thinks a phase will pass, and if doesn't pass soon enough, I suspect he'll get a divorce swiftly.
"But, it really isn't just Carol's story. Carol's changes affected both husband and son permanently and possibly irreparably."
You don't see how it might be a little misogynist to see this person who has barely developed and grown as a human being and think "Wow, her poor husband and stepson" first in your mind? The stepson doesn't seem to like her anyway and disrespects her. The husband as I've said it isn't as sympathetic as you paint him to be. He treats her as a defective toy at the party and in the bedroom scene.
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Agree with you on this scene, incredibly well done by the actor. It also reminds you of the scene near the beginning of the film when they're "making love" which is obviously hubby getting his banal sexual fix without any regard for the response of his wife who obviously feels nothing.
sharei think the baby shower scene was my favorite b/c we see just how isolated she had become at that point.
a very small scene that i loved after several viewings is at the beginning when she is running errands and picks up her dry cleaning and makes small talk with the woman behind the counter. she hesitates as if she's going to say something else or ask something else, but then she just picks up her clothes and walks out....when you compare carol from that scene to carol during the last third of the movie with the oxygen tank and constant talk of her health, you see how she has constructed some semblelence of identity.
and lastly (hee hee, can't narrow it down to just one scene) - when carol tells a counselor at the retreat that she hadn't been feeling well b/c she thinks her cabin is downwind from the highway. how perfectly we know that she is falling right in line with the rest of the people at the retreat and how the enabling has completely turned to control.
"tannis anyone?"
'when carol tells a counselor at the retreat that she hadn't been feeling well b/c she thinks her cabin is downwind from the highway. how perfectly we know that she is falling right in line with the rest of the people at the retreat'
Great point jacbowl:)
I think this touches upon what makes Carol so 'moving' for me...........
She's sincerely trying to get better, but the 'treatment' she's sought out turns out to be nothing more than something else tellling her how she should feel.
there is a harmony in our voices that is a comfort if you choose to listen.
I recall a few funny lines.
Girl: What beautiful present - Did you wrap it yourself
Moore: Oh no, I wish I was that artistic.
so funny.
I see the movie basically as a reverse monster story. She's a monster in the beginning and is trying to become human. but it's been a while.
Even creepier than the "sexy hair" comment is just when Carol's husband is *beep* her and he's grunting and moaning and thrusting into her like she's a blow up doll and she has no reaction whatsoever. She's lying there like she's a corpse almost and going "Yeah, great honey. Wow. Real good." I mean she's speaking like she's ordering a pizza. And he's still like "Oh God, wow.....oooohhhhh..", like you would be if you about to climax. He's like this selfish animal and she's this alien at this point completely disconnected to anything. That scene almost made me vomit because it was so degrading to Carol and that she's not a complete person anymore and doesn't even care if her husband just sticks his penis in her and does his thing. She can't even care anymore. Truly shrilling!!!!!!
shareI loved so much of this film. My favorite scenes have to be:
- in the psychiatrist's office, when the doc tells Carol they need to talk about her, about what is going on inside her - and Carol is absolutely silent - it sends chills down my spine.
- when Carol returns home to an empty house and stands in the living room, almost seeming as if she does not recognize where she is, or why she is there - brings tears to my eyes
- the final scene, of course - "I love you, I love you - I really love you" Carol says to the mirror, in her soft, distant voice, staring at her gaunt face in the mirror before the cut to black - that breaks my heart, I mourn for Carol every time I see it.
Anyway, one of the best films I've seen - amazing work.
My favorite scene is where she's having lunch with her friend and her friend is telling her about the new diet and the pure excitement she expresses, one of the only scenes I can think of in the movie where she gets so excited, is when she decides she wants to go on the diet too! That part is sad, but soooo funny!
If you have the DVD, the commentary from Julianne Moore during that scene is a riot!
If you have the DVD, the commentary from Julianne Moore during that scene is a riot!
:SPOILER ALERT:
At first, it was easy for me to see the wry humor in all the shallowness of Carol's lifestyle. When she went to Wrenwood, I found it understandable that she burst into tears on the first night, in response to the emptiness of the fake 'spiritual love' and cultish rhetoric of the retreat.
Her family life, with no marital intimacy, or children of her own; her friends, who seem nothing more than acquaintances; how she spent her "free time", as she confesses to the oddly distant psychiatrist, is just to expand the 'home' she has no real feelings toward; The whole time she seems to be getting worse.
She mumbles like an idiot in her birthday speech at the retreat and then, looking worse than ever, she climbs into that porcelain-lined, geodesic igloo-tomb(where the lady's husband just died), gaunt and slight, with that weird bump on her forehead growing in every scene, she begs herself for love and acceptance, in a pathetic last gasp. She probably died in her sleep that very night.
Yes, all the other characters were peripheral, but essentially, so was Carol. Her fate could happen to anyone; anyone who experienced a similar malfunctioning of their resistance to the BS of modern "life"; the meaninglessness of a life out of balance with Life. The film became progessively less 'funny'.
She could be any of us who feel smug about our successful denial and avoidance of insanity; any of us who think we know ourselves and have made our lives 'work' for us.
I tend to like the "psychological thriller" genre and this one is a goody!
I am currently watching this movie. Now im a huge fan of giving everything a try but this film is the possibly the worst thing ever made...
i feel cheated out of my time!
I too have just finished watching this film......I feel robbed of two hours of my life. What a pile of crap.
Go to London! I'll guarantee you'll be either mugged or unappreciated!
Wow, what are your favorite movies, The Punisher, or something with Segal in it??
"Nice beaver!"
"Thanks, I just had it stuffed."--The Naked Gun
Nah, my fave movies would be along the lines of.....Lost boys, stand by me, wonder boys, south park the movie, fatal attraction, Phone. Anything but this, and anything but steven segal.
Go to London! I'll guarantee you'll be either mugged or unappreciated!
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I thought Wonder Boys was good.
"Nice beaver!"
"Thanks, I just had it stuffed."--The Naked Gun
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Wow, this is a superb little film, and I'd never even heard of it before seeing it on S4C just now. Missed the first ¾ of an hour or so, but it still held me right until the end.
Could do with seeing it again, in full this time, but one scene that stood out for me was the dubious retreat leader basically 'prompting' nonspecific therapy-speak answers from the circle of retreatists, reducing them to tears and then paying no attention to their genuine emotional reactions, as if they were misguided souls for experiencing real raw feelings and exressing them communally (which is what I thought group therapy was all about). "Seeing all this hatred and human frailty makes me feel so... so lucky. So blessed" - what a therapist!
Another was Carol's revealingly incoherent rambling speech at her surprise birthday party at the end, clearly still utterly confused about her life and her world and who she is. And how the aforementioned impatient, self-absorbed new age therapist raises a toast to effectively shut her up. Fantastic.
a-n-t,
I posed a question about the therapist and I'm kind of on the same wavelength as you, but apparently someone thinks having AIDS is a "get out of being a jerk"-free card. I'd be interested in reading a response from you about my post.
Thanks
"Nice beaver!"
"Thanks, I just had it stuffed."--The Naked Gun
Well, here's a response from me-- the guy was a jerk. Denial is a normal response to tragedy, but the guy was projecting his denial all over desperate, impressionable people.That kind of *beep* can (and did) cost lives.
Anyway, back to the topic--
This movie really sent home to me how the mise-en-scene can be a storyteller, just as much as any of the actors can be. All the while Carol is struggling with the environment, and in the early moments of the film she is dwarfed by her environment-- in most of the scenes she is seen at a distance, or to the periphery of the screen (think about the "black couch" scene, where she is off to the side, or the various scenes where she is lugging around her oxygen bottle-- she is, for the most part, just a fixture in a series of long shots. With each moment of crisis, or self-discovery, the lens tightens up--the shower bathroom scene, the close-up of her face when she is brought in after her seizure --right back to long shot when she is bullied in the hospital by her husband and doctor, though--and of course the close up at the end of the film, when all she has left is herself. It just seems like a lot of care and thougth was given to the postitoning of the principles in relation to Carol's power int he situation. Beautifully done.
This movie really sent home to me how the mise-en-scene can be a storyteller, just as much as any of the actors can be. All the while Carol is struggling with the environment, and in the early moments of the film she is dwarfed by her environment-- in most of the scenes she is seen at a distance, or to the periphery of the screen (think about the "black couch" scene, where she is off to the side, or the various scenes where she is lugging around her oxygen bottle-- she is, for the most part, just a fixture in a series of long shots. With each moment of crisis, or self-discovery, the lens tightens up--the shower bathroom scene, the close-up of her face when she is brought in after her seizure --right back to long shot when she is bullied in the hospital by her husband and doctor, though--and of course the close up at the end of the film, when all she has left is herself. It just seems like a lot of care and thougth was given to the postitoning of the principles in relation to Carol's power int he situation. Beautifully done.