Conference bookie::movies

753.0. "SAFE PASSAGE" by SWAM2::SMITH_MA () Tue Jan 24 1995 14:43

    SAFE PASSAGE:
    
    Stars: Susan Sarandon, Sam Shephard, Robert Sean Leonard
    Running Time: Just under 2 hours
    
    This movie takes place over a 72 hour period in the home of the Singer
    family as they wait to discover the fate of the second Singer child,
    Perciville, who is "over there" during the Gulf War.
    
    The movie begins with a dream sequence.  Sarandon (the Singer
    Matriarch) awakens, certain that something has happened to one of her
    seven sons...she's just not sure which one.  She at first thinks it's
    her youngest, but after bursting into his bedroom at five a.m. and
    checking his breathing, she knows it's not him.  She has anxiety
    attacks over each of her seven children until she hears, on the TV,
    that a bomb was dropped on the barracks buildings where Perciville is
    stationed.  Shephard (the estranged husband) shows up...(he's been
    having strange attacks of temporary blindness, sort of a side-story
    that runs through the movie) and slowly the rest of the Singer clan is
    called in to sit vigil as they wait to hear any news...and wait and
    wait and wait and wait and wait.
    
    This is where this review will take a turn...this movie is not _really_
    about anything.  It's more a character study, or a slice of life, then
    anything else.  However!  I really liked it.  But, alas, I am
    completley prepared to be in the minority on this one.  I'm afraid some
    of you will find it slow, or even boring.  But, give it a shot, at
    least on video.  Sarandon and Shephard are great.  There's lots of
    heartfelt moments, and some decent warm chuckling spots.  No shooting
    or sex or nudity or violence (although there is the scene with the
    dog...) but it's good acting, and good writing, and DIFFERENT.
    
    MJ