Film

The Safety of Objects

A portrait of suburban families in quiet crisis, where grief, ambition and emotional withdrawal slowly poison the lives around them. Glenn Close anchors an ensemble of four interconnected households where nobody knows how to ask for help. It's observant and patient, sometimes devastating, for anyone who recognises themselves in the slow damage of neglect.

TMDb rating3.3

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American Beauty1999

The same scalpel applied to suburban malaise and the performance of normalcy. Watches like a reckoning with the American dream, with ensemble character work that reveals rot beneath the surface.

But It has aged into a film about terrible men that sometimes seems to like them anyway. The metaphorical density can feel overwrought.

American Beauty poster

Ordinary People1980

Grief fracturing a family from the inside, with the same focus on what people cannot say to each other. Redford's direction finds devastation in small moments and silences.

But It moves slowly and the emotional payoff requires patience. Some find it dated in its treatment of psychology.

Ordinary People poster

In Good Company2004

Three families navigating work, love and parental obligation with similar gentle precision. Watches like a conversation about how we fail the people closest to us.

But The optimism of its ending may feel unearned. It's quieter and less probing than the deeper psychological work here.

In Good Company poster

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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind2004

Both explore how we protect ourselves from pain by withdrawing from the people we love, and what we lose in that withdrawal. Here, the withdrawal is literal and irreversible.

A man's relationship slowly disappears as a memory-erasing procedure reverses their history. It shares the obsession with loss and the attempt to outrun grief, but expresses it through science fiction and visual poetry rather than realism.

But It's emotionally opaque and deliberately confusing in structure. The sci-fi premise may feel like distance rather than clarity.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind poster
More like this (8)

Garden State2004

Numbed protagonists returning to suburban roots to confront what they've been avoiding. Carries the same mood of dissociation and the search for feeling beneath the surface.

But Relies heavily on indie rock sentimentality that hasn't aged well. Some scenes feel more performed than felt.

Garden State poster

The Ice Storm1997

Interconnected families in 1970s suburbia discovering the cost of emotional distance and secrets. Ang Lee finds dark humour and tragedy in the same material.

But Very dark and tonally uneven. The sexual content is explicit and sometimes feels gratuitous.

The Ice Storm poster

Happiness1998

Three sisters and their crises in messy, uncomfortable detail. Todd Solondz refuses easy answers or comfortable distance from his characters' desperation.

But It's extremely dark and features sexual violence. The comedy comes from places that may deeply disturb you.

Happiness poster

Synecdoche, New York2008

A man's inability to engage with life and family while building an elaborate fantasy world. Charlie Kaufman's obsession with performance, authenticity and emotional avoidance speaks to the same themes.

But Deliberately difficult and obscure. Many will find it pretentious or inaccessible.

Synecdoche, New York poster

Certified Copy2010

A marriage examined and interrogated over a single day, asking what authenticity means between two people. Abbas Kiarostami's investigation of connection and performance is similarly patient and precise.

But It's abstract and philosophical rather than dramatically gripping. The twist divides audiences.

Certified Copy poster

The Savages2007

Siblings facing aging parents and their own failures, with Tamara Jenkins finding dark comedy in obligation and resentment. Close to the bone about family duty and disappointment.

But Tonally uncertain—it shifts between comedy and melancholy. The resolution is ambiguous and unsatisfying to some.

The Savages poster

The Turin Horse2011

Both observe people trapped in cycles of care and dependence, where love becomes obligation becomes despair. Tarr finds a visual language for the suffocation that Close's character endures in silence.

Béla Tarr's black-and-white descent into repetition and decay, following an old philosopher and his servant in the last days of their lives. It's hypnotic, strange, glacially paced—a meditation on aging, failure and the approach of ending.

But It's relentlessly bleak and visually monotonous. Nearly three hours with minimal dialogue or conventional plot. Not for impatient viewers.

The Turin Horse poster

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul1974

Both examine how relationships are poisoned by social pressure, shame and the inability to say what needs to be said. Fassbinder's couple fragments under the weight of the world around them, much as Close's families do.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's portrait of a marriage between a widow and an immigrant, told with melodramatic intensity but real emotional precision. It watches like a tragedy unfolding in the details of daily life.

But The melodrama is alien to modern taste. The film is small and deliberately formal in a way that can feel cold. Subtitled.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul poster

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