Safe Passage
Life's Best Journeys Take You Home
Susan Sarandon stars as Mag Singer, a woman who is preparing to make a huge change in her life. She has just left her husband (Academy Award Nominee Sam Shepherd, Black Hawk Down, The Right Stuff) and is planning to move with her youngest son Simon (Nick Stahl, Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines, In The Bedroom) as she starts a new career. In the process of packing, she receives the news of a terrorist bombing of a U.S. Marine compound in the Middle East where one of her oldest sons, Percival, is stationed. With no news of Percival's status, the disconnected family reconvenes in the family home to wait for information. Supporting cast includes Robert Sean Leonard (Driven, Dead Poets Society), Academy Award winner Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River, Pollock), Sean Astin (Lord Of The Rings Motion Picture Trilogy), Jason London (Grind, The Man In The Moon) and Matt Keeslar (Scream 3, The Stupids).
Member Reviews
A Dysfunctional Family You Can Care About - revsdd
The trials of dysfunctional families have become something of a Hollywood staple over the years. The problem with most of the movies built around this theme, however, is that in the midst of all their troubles, the families and the dysfunctional people they're composed of tend to become wholly unlikeable and you end up not really caring about any of them - and sometimes not even wanting to watch them live through their dysfunctions. That's what I found so refreshing about "Safe Passage." The Singers are, indeed, a dysfunctional family, but in the midst of watching them carry out the requisite sniping at one another there's also a real sense that they care deeply about each other, and the end result is that the viewer also cares about them.
The family comes together from assorted places (both geographically and emotionally) because of a possible tragedy. Son Percival (the misfit of the family) joined the U.S. Marines to "find himself" and was stationed in the Sinai Peninsula, where a terrorist attack has reduced the base to rubble and killed scores of Marines. Is Percival alive or dead? The family gathers to await the news. Mom and Dad (Susan Sarandon and Sam Shepherd) are already estranged and living apart; the kids all have their own unique (and sometimes quirky) niches within the family (the perfectionist, the intellectual, the twins, the athlete, the youngest) and try to contribute what they can to this temporary living arrangement forced upon them by events far away and beyond their ability to control.
This is a very watchable movie, filled with characters that you will both care about and remember. Well done!
Member Reviews
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A Dysfunctional Family You Can Care About - revsdd
The trials of dysfunctional families have become something of a Hollywood staple over the years. The problem with most of the movies built around this theme, however, is that in the midst of all their troubles, the families and the dysfunctional people they're ...