The Safety of Objects

With the help of an ensemble that is nearly flawless, she (Troche) assembles the damaged human elements of Ms. Homes's world with patience and precision, and more often than not chooses dry understatement over easy satire or obvious sentiment.

Presented with such confidence, such care, that we love all of the characters, even if we don't like them.

A couple of unexpected revelations in the final act pack an emotional wallop that shifts the film (shot in clean, uncluttered takes) into the realm of old-fashioned tearjerker, but the tears are wholly earned.

It's a movie located in an interesting place, but without quite enough self-confidence really to inhabit it.

The overall effect is imaginative but overambitious, though Troche unquestionably has cinematic talent.

Troche's tone is so relentlessly, depressingly monotonous that the characters seem trapped in a narrow emotional range. They live out their miserable lives in one lachrymose sequence after another, and for us there is no relief.

A noble attempt that doesn't hang together.