Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) * * *

 

Directed by:  Colin Trevorrow

Starring:  Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Kristen Bell, Karan Soni, Jenica Bergere

WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.

This is a classified ad taken out in a Seattle newspaper which launches an investigation.   Is whomever placed this ad insane or is he or she the real deal?   A reporter named Jeff (Johnson) and his interns Darius (Plaza) and Arnau (Soni) take a trip to a small Washington town and find the man who placed the ad fairly quickly.   He is Kenneth (Duplass), a loner who insists he has time traveled and has government agents following him.   Darius poses as an interested candidate to accompany Kenneth on his journey, but soon not only believes him but falls for him.   Kenneth seems to like Darius too and trusts her.  

This is the setup of Safety Not Guaranteed, but what is at its heart is Kenneth's earnestness and Darius lowering her guard to let Kenneth (or anyone else) in.   Both are wounded souls who believe time travel will heal them as well as change things.   Why else would Kenneth want a companion on his adventure if he wasn't a lonely man looking to share his gift?   Of course, questions nag at us like:  Is Kenneth insane?   Is he setting Darius up?  Are people following him for the reasons he suspects?   Is Kenneth being truthful?   We learn the answers.   Kenneth may be a bit off, but there is something about the way he discusses time travel that makes us believe.

Safety Not Guaranteed works because we care.   The movie could have veered off into strange directions, but it maintains its comic edge even though at its core it is not comedy.   Jeff isn't simply left hanging in the wind.   He wants to change his present by looking up an old flame named Liz (Bergere) and trying to spark things up again.   He is trying to do what Kenneth wants to do with a time machine:  Change things for the better for himself.   The more Kenneth and Darius connect, the more we understand their hurt.  

Running at a taut 85 minutes, Safety Not Guaranteed examines the time travel concept and understands it is likely done for selfish reasons and not to benefit humankind.   If our actions change the world for the better, then that's all gravy.   Not that there's anything wrong with that.   Plaza and Duplass make a believable pair because they see that while the idea of time travel is absurd, it also is possible thanks to machines, science, research, and the will to do it.  Of those four necessities, the will may wind up being the most important of all.   I was floored by how much I was involved in Kenneth's story by the end, and how I knew I was right about him.