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
