Safe House (1998)

Very Cool!!!

Touches You

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

As Good As It Gets

"Safe House" from 1998 stars Patrick Stewart, Kimberly Williams, and Hector Elizondo.Stewart plays Mace Sowell, a former operative for the DIA (not CIA as he's quick to point out) - the Defense Intelligence Agency. Now retired, he lives as if he is about to be killed any second. In his bed is a dummy version of him, while he sleeps in another area; he has a room full of computer monitors which track what's happening on his property, monitors conversations, and he seems to always be signing into something top secret. When he goes out in the car with his daughter Michelle (Joy Kilpatrick), he is heavily disguised and lying on the floor in the back seat. His doctor (Elizondo) prescribes medication for him that he won't take. He periodically schedules "drills" which includes such things as attacks on his home where a masked man (actually his friend Marc) uses his maid as a human shield.It's clear to Michelle that her father needs round the clock care, as he's in the early stages of Alzheimer's. In order to allow him to stay at home, she hires a social worker, Andi Travers (Williams) to stay with him. Over time, the two form a bond. He tells her that he has enough evidence against his old boss at the DIA, Thomas Michelmore, who is running for President, to ruin his career. Michelmore has already had several people eliminated who knew too much, and Mace believes he is next.Mace has this evidence on a server that will email it to every news outlet in the world unless it's reset with a new password every 24 hours. So the question becomes - okay, he probably is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, but is he just paranoid or is someone really out to get him? Is any of this true? It's clear his daughter, her husband, and Mace's doctor don't believe him. Will Andi?Really fantastic film that keeps you absorbed and involved until the very end with lots of surprise action and humor, all leading up to a fantastic finale. Patrick Stewart is wonderful as a man who realizes he's going over the edge and fights every second to stave off dementia. Kimberly Williams as his patient and level-headed caretaker does an excellent job throughout, as does James Harlow (Marc) who is constantly coming up with new impressions of actors, everyone from Jim Nabors to Jimmy Stewart.Highly recommended.

I didn't read the jacket description carefully enough and was surprised that the majority of this film was about the main character, Mace (Patrick Stewart) developing Alzheimer's. It started out predictably with Mace neurotically drilling on security protocols and attack situations. He's retired intelligence, after all. But then we learn that some of what he's afraid of is not enemies, but memory loss associated with the disease he hopes he doesn't have but finally accepts. His daughter hires a woman to look after him and we are immediately suspicious because she's smart, gorgeous - why does she want a job looking after an old man developing Alzheimer's? As the film progresses, I agree that Patrick Stewart does a very good job as someone who depended on their memory to stay alive and has put safeguards in place in case of ... well ... we know. Clues from the TV that is constantly on, keeps us thinking that there must be something to Mace's fears though I didn't think the film would end quite the way it did. It was good but I wouldn't call it an action movie (aka Die Hard) but rather a suspenseful psychological drama. It was not a very uplifting movie because even if our hero makes it out alive, we know his memory is not going to last. Movies about Alzheimer's are sad and this one is also.

I will start by admitting that I'm a Star Trek fan, and in particular a Next Gen fan. So yes, I have a bias towards liking Stewart, although I think most can agree he is a skilled actor.That concession aside, and as my summary suggests, this is not an epic movie, just a short story. I loved the set design, which was quite clever; where most movies tend to create the impression of big houses and locales, this one manages to create the impression of close spaces, as appropriate for a fortress in suburbia.You will continue to guess at whether or not Stewart's paranoia is justified or just symptoms of Alzheimer's until the very end. Stewart is well fitted for the part, or at the very least he was convincing to me. I think this particular says something since I'm used to seeing him as Captain Picard.I wouldn't try to sell this off as an accurate portrayal of how DIA operatives act when they retire. I wouldn't know anything about that. I don't even know if there is such a thing as the DIA.What I will say is that the movie is best taken as a diversion, a fun romp that keeps you interested, but it doesn't grip you like an epic. Perhaps rightly so, since the subject matter doesn't fit an epic movie anyway.As a final note, I still don't see anything wrong with genre mixing. Why can't you have a drama that's funny, or a comedy with serious action, or whatever it is you want to blend? If it works it works, if it doesn't it doesn't, and it works for me here. (See as an example "The Big Hit," which the writer called a "hip-hop comic Hong Kong action movie") This movie is a small little tidbit, to be taken and enjoyed as such. 8/10

The end is fairly good, but the movie's setup drags on and on forever. By the time anything really happened, I didn't care anymore. If I hadn't rented it I probably would have turned it off before the end. Bottom line: Boring.