MovieChat Forums > Safe (1995) Discussion > Quite obvious what Carol's 'illness' was...

Quite obvious what Carol's 'illness' was.

posted 11 years ago by Degree7
4 replies | jump to latest

Besides being trapped in 1980's Southern California of shopping malls, gated communities and laundromats, Carol's ailment was being part of an unloving society. You could say that her family and friends at least passively cared for her well being, but they also simply saw her a piece of furniture and not as a human being with real issues or feelings. She was continuously let down and duped by others, eventually falling victim to a new age health guru scam that sought to feed off of her malaise (and perhaps her bank account) by selling her empty 'self help' nonsense. How can you learn to appreciate yourself for who you are when no one else really sees you? It's enough to send anyone into a self induced convulsion.

This is a dark warning tale of a world without love, much like Todd Hayne's other film, "Far from Heaven".

[–] Kompressor_Fan 10 years ago

The only part I disagree with you on is her friends. You said they were only passively caring. You are giving them too much credit. They didn't care at all. Once the protagonist had her meltdown at the party, you never saw one of those women again for the duration of the film (unless I'm mistaken......saw it for the first time this weekend.)

 The bad news is you have houseguests. There is no good news. 

[–] matheusmagalhaes10 9 years ago

This film reminds me The Seventh Continent, even though the latter is far more aesthetical driven than this one. Both are about an extreme discomfort with burgeoise Life being cast as a form of cultural pathos among a group of individuals. Aside from the guru, those people aren't mean spirited; they're just trying to materialize their neurosis as products of somatic conditions. This the kind of work that gets morçe important as the years go by and the self help editorial phenomenon appears as an extreme symptom of a culture struggling for meaning among material excess and technological comfort.

[–] mccollum26 9 years ago

I call BS disease or rich people disease(too much money and time). If you have to work to survive and worry about bills, you don't have time to be like this.

[–] BulimicWerewolf 9 years ago

She was going crazy from boredom, just like I was watching this lame movie

They really should have made that cult at the end something sinister like they all drink the cool aide and die.