An affluent and unexceptional homemaker in the suburbs develops multiple chemical sensitivity.
"Safe" has been described as a horror movie of the soul, a description that director Todd Haynes relishes. California housewife Carol White seems to have it all in life: a wealthy husband, a beautiful house, servants, beauty, and a lot of friends. The only thing she lacks is a strong personality: Carol seems timid and empty during all of her interactions with the world around her. At the beginning of the film, one would consider her to be more safe in life than just about anyone. That doesn't turn out to be the case. Starting with headaches and leading to a grandmal seizure, Carol becomes more and more sick, claiming that she's become sensitive to the common toxins in today's world: exhaust, fumes, aerosol spray, etc. She pulls back from the sexual advances of her husband and spends her nights alone by the TV or wandering around the outside of her well-protected home like an animal in a cage. Her physician examines her and can find nothing wrong. An allergist finds that she has an allergic reaction to milk but explains that there is no treatment for that sort of allergy. She sees a psychiatrist who does nothing but make her nervous. In the hospital, Carol sees an infomercial for Wrenwood, a new-age retreat for those who are "environmentally ill," and leaves her husband and stepson to try and find salvation at this retreat: headed by a phony, grandstanding, "sensitive" individual named Peter Dunning.—David Eschatfische <[email protected]>
Todd Haynes's eerie medical thriller shows us that our environment has finally turned against us. Carol, a typical upper middle-class housewife, begins to complain of vague symptoms of illness. She "doesn't feel right," has unexplained headaches, congestion, a dry cough, nosebleeds, vomiting, and trouble breathing. Her family doctor treats her concerns dismissively and suggests a psychiatrist. Eventually, an allergist tells her that she has Environmental Illness. Her body is rebelling against the overload that her immune system has to deal with, as she is continually exposed to all of the chemicals that we inhale, ingest, and absorb daily. The pollution in our air, pesticides on our food, and toxins in our water, are collectively overwhelming her defenses. The ubiquitous sprays, creams, and emollients used to beautify have become deadly poisons to her. In essence, she has become allergic to the Twentieth Century. She sees Wrenwood as her only salvation, a New Agey center run (quite profitably) by Peter, a clichéd, easy-talking, demagogic guru. Unsettling and ambiguous, we are never sure about each character's hidden agenda, as they revolve around Carol, a timid, frightened pawn, overwhelmed by her condition.—Tad Dibbern <[email protected]>
The story is of Carol White (Julianne Moore) and her husband Greg (Xander Berkeley) living with their son in the San Fernando Valley. She is seemingly perfect, but she begins to get strangely sick, reacting to various things in her surroundings and attempts changing her diet and habits. Her doctor can't find anything medically amiss and she consults with a psychiatric physician. She collapses while she is driving her car back home one day and she and a doctor figure out she has a mild allergy. She begins to seek answers to her growing illness, but no doctor or psychologist can find the source of her ailing: it may be on her mind, because further tests show that she is not allergic to anything. She does a strong diet, advised by her friend Nell (Mary Carver). However, she starts blaming chemical products in food, cleaning products, clothes, pollutants ... She freaks out during a party in honour of another female friend, heavily pregnant.
Investigating further, she finds a retreat called Wrenwood, eventually relocating there, where the other members are treated by a smooth-talking doctor who entreats them to look inside themselves for the cure to their varying illnesses. Meanwhile, all the inmates' clothes are made of cotton, all food and drink is organic and cars are forbidden, which she is shouted at the first time she arrives to the place. A married couple who have relocated there, because of his health, have built themselves a kind of bunker/igloo with controlled air and water, however, he will die anyway.
Carol discovers that there is a highway nearby the compound, so she asks to be relocated within Wrenwood. Once, when Greg and their child visit her, they have very cold conversations, without any physical contact. It looks like Carol's illness is a great inconvenience to her family, and no close friends visit her ever.
Carol leaves her family and takes up residence in the isolated igloo, where she can confront herself and her inner feelings. The film ends with Carol looking at herself in a mirror, saying: "I love you", with a sad barren face.
