The Safety of Objects is a 2001 American drama film based upon a collection of short stories of the same name written by A. M. Homes and published in 1990.

Trying to elicit her mother's attention, Julie enters Esther in a local radio contest, hoping to win a brand-new car.

He tries to reconnect with his son Jake (Alex House), on the edge of puberty, but the youth is preoccupied with romantic fantasies about his younger sister's twelve-inch plastic doll.

Sam's younger sister suffers from mental disabilities and requires special schooling, which her father, Annette's ex-husband, refuses to pay for.

Randy, the neighborhood's landscaper, is coping (poorly) with his own younger brother's death in the same car accident that grievously injured Paul Gold.

Esther eventually gets to the final two slots in the radio contest, only to pull out at the last moment after nearly three days of physical and emotional taxation.

The site's consensus reads: "The large cast of characters and scripting are too unwieldy, and the suburban angst theme feels tired.

[5] A. O. Scott wrote in The New York Times that Trouche "assembles the damaged human elements of Ms. Homes's world with patience and precision, and more often than not chooses dry understatement over easy satire or obvious sentiment".

[6] Los Angeles Times critic Kevin Thomas said that it is "so intense emotionally that had it come in half an hour earlier it could have retained far greater impact".

[7] Writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle called the film "a noble attempt that doesn't hang together".