Safe House (1998)

Originally Written

Friday, October 14, 2005

After the seemingly suspicious disappearance of my cat a few months back, and then the consistent disappearance of other items from my property over the last couple months, including a freaking trash can right off the street in front of my house tonight, I strangely thought of the film Safe House.  As I begin to equipment my house with night vision security cameras I only wish I had the arsenal and Fort Knox lock down that Patrick Stewart has in this great film.

Safe House was a Showtime movie starring Patrick Stewart as paranoid ex-government agent Mace Sowel, who has begun the early stages of Alzheimer's. His house is completely rigged with the highest security, guns hidden in every corner and he runs daily drills to keep himself in shape and alert. His daughter thinks he's crazy when he continuously thinks someone is going to try and kill him.  She doesn't even believe he ever used to work for a secret government agency, she believes it's all side affects of Alzheimer’s or medication.  So she hires him a full-time care giver, who he does not like, and forces him to attend frequent doctor examinations. Near the end, Mace begins to believe he too might be insane, but there's still a glimmer of hope he isn't completely off his rocker.

Safe House is a great TV movie, I remember the first time I saw it about five years ago (ten years now), and it literally kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Was someone really trying to kill him? Or is it the disease? Patrick Stewart gives a wonderful performance of a man who is driven by fear, and the breakdown of his mental stability, this story will definitely hit a nerve especially when Stewart starts to breakdown crying when he can't correctly recite a memory test.  It's at this point he begins to realize he does have Alzheimer’s and very well might be crazy. The film also stars Kimberly Williams from Father of the Bride and the TV show According To Jim.  She does a great job in attempting to tame the adolescent actions of Stewart's character. The only negative point about the film is there are a few scenes that drag on and really contribute nothing to the story, making the film seem a little long winded, but if you haven't seen this before you should, because the surprise ending is completely worth it, and Patrick Stewart is phenomenal. 

8/10