This film is very entertaining and should be watched by the whole family but you may not want your kids to watch it because of the Adult Themes and the little Language. The cast was well picked and they did a great job(Susan Sarandon and Nick Stahl)and Jason London was also good even though he played a minor part as one of Susan's character's sons. It tells a story of a mother with 7 sons who at night has a premonition dream that something has happened to one of her sons and the story unfolds from there. The film was just so touching but im not sure if it was rated M or PG so if it is PG you should let the whole family watch it. In conclusion to this review I give this film a 7 out of 10 because it deserves this rating and because it's a film for the whole family.
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Lozbee200027 December 2001
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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! 7/10 -
nitedrive7311 August 2006Being the mother of six children myself(so far)I feel it's great to find a movie where a mother,especially one of many kids,is made visible,as a person in her own right and not just as a bystander and comfort for the rest of the family.Usually it isn't such an attractive theme for a film maker(not being so glamorous and all),but here Susan Sarandon(grown up in a large family herself)portrays a mother of seven sons with great credibility. Maybe not one of those movies you watch for an hour or two of escapism and action,but well worth your time.Maybe I wouldn't have enjoyed it so much if a)it hadn't been a Sarandon movie b)I hadn't had many kids myself. But I can't help liking it.
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Gordon-111 October 2011This film is about a mother of seven sons, who had a premonition dream about something bad will happen to one of her sons. As their family learns about the tragedy, they come together and learn to love each other again.
"Safe Passage" is a drama about real people, real family and real life situations. The characters are down to earth and authentic. they could our next door neighbours or even ourselves. Hence, I find myself connecting with the characters and the story of "Safe Passage".
Susan Sarandon is superb as a stressed out mother. She acts her character's emotions well, be it love, stress, anxiety, guilt or anger. I like the flashbacks and the home videos, as they provide further insight into how the past shaped the character's personality. "Safe Passage" is an engaging drama. -
Adaptation of Ellyn Bache's novel stars Susan Sarandon as the feisty mother of seven boys, most of whom are now grown and out on their own. Still worrying after them, and concerned over their health and safety, Mom eventually finds all this selfless love putting a strain on her health. Extremely odd piece is not an attractive vehicle for Sarandon, though she's as interesting as ever. Melodrama from director Robert Allan Ackerman takes place over a couple days' time, while Susan and her eccentric brood await the news of her soldier-son, but the picture has no particular viewpoint--it's just a passel of scenes. The seasoned star is "Safe Passage"'s one distinguishing factor; giving another in her repertoire of aggressive-yet-vulnerable characters, Sarandon is certainly worth a look, but you probably won't remember the picture a day or so later. *1/2 from ****
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bahhumbugyada26 May 2006THIS MOVIE ROCKS!!!!!!!!! If I want to watch a movie about how life COULD be I'll rent Cinderella! It's important to have real life movies once in a while and not just another fairy tale.
This movie is good because you get to see how each person is different and how everyone will face an emergency situation differently than the next person. It's just a story that is being told about an average American family and how they faced the problems that surfaced. The movie contains humor, drama, romance, as well as tragedy. Important family values really shine through in this film. I would and have suggested this movie to many, many people. -
Steffy27 November 1998As a mother of five I found this movie very enjoyable. The writer got to the heart of motherhood and marriage, and all frustrations that go along with it. I am sure that women watching it could relate to the feeling of wanting a life of their own and the guilt that comes with it. The story was told with sensitivity. Susan Sarandon out-did herself as usual.
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funkie_sparkels17 September 2001I thought this was an excellent movie. It dealt with very real-life situations in a way that was more human than the way most movies try to deal with similar situations. Susan Sarandon is my favourite actress and never fails to be outstanding. This was no exception. Highly recommended.
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If you like movies about realistic families you should like this film. Nothing really deep. Family joins together during the stress of the potential loss of one of its members. The way they act and treat one another is so true.
It's worth the rental cost to watch Susan and the boys clean the garage. -
Margaret Singer (Susan Sarandon) is a mother of seven sons that is also divorcing her husband Patrick (Sam Shepard) and wants to move to the city for living on her own. Suddenly she hears on TV the news about a bombing at a Marine base in the Middle East where her son Percival is stationed there. All the other sons return home in waiting for positive news about Percival and also Patrick for rejoining his bond with Margaret. The movie then moves back and forth between scenes of the family together at home and flashbacks of Margaret helping her kids grow when they were little. They will all wait the good news, but will it arrive? See the movie.
The reason for seeing this obscure movie is simply for the good feelings it provides. Despite Margaret and her children are all anxious for the news about Percival, they still live a good life: they visit friends, they go out for daily routines and so on. Probably the moment I loved the most is when Izzy (Sean Astin) tried to understand the reason behind the dad's casual blindness and he even succedds in finding some sort of cure for it.
Despite this movie has very few reviews, I highly recommend it because, yes it is about a dysfunctional family, but it manages also to be a great feel good movie. -
Michael_Elliott14 March 2008Safe Passage (1994)
** (out of 4)
Wife and mother Mag Singer (Susan Sarandon) is going through a hard period in her life. She has kicked her husband (Sam Sheppard) out of the house and she planning on leaving the town with her youngest son so that she can get the first real job of her life. She raised seven sons and is starting to feel that she hasn't done enough for herself so she's hoping a change will bring around some good. The mother is constantly awaken at night due to nightmares where she thinks something has happened to one of her children.
These fears come true when one of her sons, stationed overseas, is involved in a terrorist attack on a U.S. base. It could takes days for the victim's names to be released but in the meantime the six other sons arrive home to wait for the news. Over this time the family tries to deal with the past and deal with the future if one of the brothers has in fact been killed. At the same time the father is dealing with an illness that causes him to loose his sight but to him this is a minor thing because his marriage has fallen apart.
Safe Passage is a film I've been meaning to see since it was released ten years ago. The film slipped into theaters very quickly and left just as quietly so this was my first chance to see it and I couldn't help but feel disappointed in the end result. There are many good elements in the film but the melodrama is just so darn thick that by the thirty minute mark you'll be losing patients in the characters and the film. The film plays out much like a TV movie so perhaps that's why it had a hard time in theaters.
The film's story is very simple, which means we should have gotten a straight forward drama but instead the screenplay throws in all sorts of flashbacks, which I guess are meant to show how good of a mother Sarandon is but this here really wasn't needed and is just too cute for such a serious drama. The cuteness is another problem with the film as is the comic relief of the father having blind spells. There are cute scenes popping up all over and the entire look of the family is completely wrong. They live in a dollhouse with a basement and garage and all seven sons are good looking, healthy and seem like leftovers from Leave it to Beaver. With all the goodness going all, it makes the fighting seem all the more overly dramatic.
The highlight of the film are its performances, which are all first class. Susan Sarandon has certainly proved to be one of the best actresses out there and her performance here comes off very natural and realistic. The screenplay makes her out as a nut, which I think is another problem, but during the tender moments Sarandon really shines. Sam Sheppard steals the film as the father who is trying to come to terms with his wife as well as worrying over his sons. The stuff dealing with the blindness is poorly written so I'm not sure if it was meant as comic relief or if the film was taking the illness seriously. Of all the sons, Sean Astin comes off doing the best work but Nick Stahl, Robert Sean Leonard and Jason London also do nice work. Marcia Gay Harden also does a terrific job as a single mother dating the oldest son.
The movie features some very good moments including the scene were Sarandon and Harden exchange shots of tequila but overall the overbearing melodrama really kills things. This is a very frustrating movie that throws all sorts of problems at the viewer yet these lifelong problems are taken care of within minutes and the fighting stops until the next issue pops up. Then, forty years of problems are all forgotten in the last five minutes of the movie, which means we've sat through this film for no reason. Outside the performances, there's really very little to recommend with Safe Passage.