Safe

Many consider Todd Haynes to be one of the finest filmmakers working today. But here's the thing, he's not. I've now seen three of his four or five films and they are all veneers of filmmaking past, with little below the surface -- at least, little that I can find. Safe is a strange movie that I can't seem to make anything of. The opening titles are excellently eerie with the kind of music that sets you up for a suspense film. In fact, the first hour or so of the film seems to be shot and scored as if it were a horror movie, but you can seem to find anything to be afraid of. Julianne Moore, however, gives a characteristically strong performance as a house wife who suddenly catches what is known as environmental illness, and becomes violently ill to everyday chemicals like milk, make-up, car exhaust, perfume and others of the like. I'm not sure if this is a superficial plea to be environmentally conscious or not, because the second half goes in a different direction. It feels like there should be something more beneath the surface (perhaps her illness is a metaphor for the decay of contemporary society?), but it doesn't make me want to find out what it is.