Safe

Interesting and intelligent Todd Haynes movie (1995). Also an interesting technical exercise. As you may be able to deipher, a tiny bit joyless also.
The technical aspects, especially in the first half, are great. Woth clear memories of Ozu Haynes opts for the still camera inside the house, the silences, the characters seen from the full body. This well shows Moore's isolation and smallness in the huge open spaces of her 'home'. The distances between the characters by this technique gives a great feeling of isolation. We were really egging the director on to see how long he could go, from the wide angle, without cutting.
Moore's performance is obviously important in such a style, she carries the film's narrative (and thus gives us a way in, the only one we could have due to the cold realism of the mis-en-shot). She delivers a fine performance, not shooting the lights out but showing nice touches of confusion and ambiguity. Her husband also essays a nice line in disorientation.
As the film goes on the flawless technical execution (which feels a little bit like a lesson at times) takes a back seat, but the ideas do get a little more interesting. The housewife alergic to the house is a little smack over the head obvious as symbolism (perhaps because it is such a continually repeated trope) but the examination of the new age folk lets us see both sides of the view. In the last half an hour we for the first time move away from Moore's view, we gain a little critical distance, leading to a nice elliptical ending.
The virtuouso technique does not have the warmth of an Ozu, it is clinical, but that wouldn't be remedied by the changing shots or closing in, it would be by different acting, characterisation, setting and (slow) montage.
Not that we want to give the impression that this film is anything but intriguing, intelligent, technically superb and well acted.