Safe has been defined, with Todd Hayness's
approval, "a horror of the soul". One day Carol
(Julianne Moore), an upper class American woman all aerobics, hair stylist and
dull marriage, finds out she has caught a disease which is surprisingly
widespread in the USA: the "allergy
to XX century" or "environmental
disease". It is caused by pollution, that is by chemical products
which accumulate in our body until they damage our immune system. The result is
that Carol cannot live among people any longer, since she cannot stand anything
toxic: cigarette smoke, car fumes, the air itself. There seem to be no remedies
for this disease and Carol begins to develop the first signs of psychological
uneasiness together with physical illness. Mind and body, restoring a too often
forgotten bond, react to the daily intoxication with a violent crisis, which
will affect her family and friends too.
