76
Metascore
17 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranInsidious and provocative, Safe refuses to lend a hand, avoids taking sides or pointing the way. Everything that happens in this beautifully controlled enigma is open to multiple interpretations, and that extends finally to the title's meaning as well.
- 100Slant MagazineSal CinquemaniSlant MagazineSal CinquemaniWe know nothing of this woman’s inner-traumas, the repressed memories or hidden pains of her youth, yet Moore, in an extraordinary milestone performance, gives us a glimpse inside Carol’s frail and lonely soul.
- 100Washington PostRita KempleyWashington PostRita KempleyThis spooky film's ostensible subject—an environmental illness known as multiple chemical sensitivity—is merely a starting place for this mesmerizing horror movie, feminist tract and medical mystery.
- 100The DissolveScott TobiasThe DissolveScott TobiasAs a piece of filmmaking, Safe is brilliant for the way Haynes, in concert with cinematographer Alex Nepomniaschy and composer Ed Tomney, blankets the mundane in the eerie tone of science fiction and horror, especially in the first half.
- 89Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenWhat Safe does so brilliantly is to plunge us down this frightening rabbit hole with Carol.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertMaybe the environment is poisoned, and the group is phony, and Carol is gnawing away at her own psychic health. Now there's a fine mess.
- 75Chicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonChicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonThough Haynes' methods are austere and his style dry, the terror of his narrative becomes more palpable as the film unwinds. The picture's eerie delicacy, meticulous technique and rapt formality may distance us, but they also steadily strip bare the panic at its core.
- 63ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliSafe does not succeed at everything it attempts. The film is overlong and there are times when more aggressive editing might have improved the pace. However, despite certain dramatic shortcomings, Safe is an insightful and darkly comical social commentary.
- 60The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinBrilliantly as it begins, Safe eventually succumbs to its own modern malady, as the film maker insists on a chilly ambiguity that breeds more detachment than interest.
- 50Baltimore SunStephen HunterBaltimore SunStephen HunterFrequently fascinating, it never builds into anything profound.