Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageSafe Passage (1994)
Director: Robert Allan Ackerman
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Though she's seen all but one of her seven sons grow up and leave home, Mag Singer (Sarandon) still has sufficiently strong maternal impulses to get in a blind funk every time she has a dream she thinks is a premonition of danger; she'll even ring her reluctantly estranged husband (Shepard) about her anxieties. However, just as she and 14-year-old Simon are about to move out of the family home, one of Mag's 'signs' proves true: Percival, who'd become so tired of life at home that he'd joined the Marines, is feared dead after a terrorist bomb at his Sinai barracks. Cue for the rest of the family to gather to work over old resentments, rivalries, loyalties and memories. Despite sturdy performances (the sons include Leonard and Astin), this film, from a novel by Ellyn Bache, is a tepid, dispiriting effort. A tidy, small-town world is on display. Irritations are minor and all, ultimately, forgivable. Everyone, however outcast they may sometimes feel, has a place and function in the grand familial scheme of things. The metaphors - notably Shepard's incipient blindness - are flagged, and the whole thing's a string of clichés.Author: GA
Cast & crew
Director: Robert Allan Ackerman
Producer: Gale Anne Hurd
Cast: Susan Sarandon, Sam Shepard, Nick Stahl, Marcia Gay Harden, Robert Sean Leonard, Sean Astin, Matt Keeslar full cast
Duration: 98 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Has David Cronenberg turned tame?
Has director David Cronenberg veered too far from his radical and bloody roots with new film 'A Dangerous Method'?
The 10 worst date movies
Just in time for Valentine's Day, we present ten of the least romantic films ever made
Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films
Find out where to watch 2012's Oscar-nominated films in London cinemas
10 unlikely badboy biopics
Featuring Phil Collins, Jeremy Clarkson, Nick Clegg, David Starkey and a host of other unlikely subjects
Interview: Sean Durkin on 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'
The first-time director of the brilliant new thriller discusses religious cults and robot boxing
Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day
Side-step romantic clichés with some alternative Valentine’s viewing
What do you think?
Post your review now