Safety Not Guaranteed

Even though I found myself enjoying Safety Not Guaranteed, the entire time I was feeling like I should have been enjoying it even more than I was. This is a charming and heartfelt offbeat comedy that just has a few too many rough edges for me to label it a complete success. It's brisk, if not a bit too slight for it's own good. But the performances and the overall tone of the movie kept me in mostly good spirits.

Despite a running time just short of 90 minutes, the pace of the film is leisurely, and kind of meandering. But, you wouldn't guess that from the film's opening moments, which quickly introduces our main characters, and sets them out on their adventure within the first five minutes or so. During an article pitch meeting at a Seattle-based magazine, a writer named Jeff (Jake Johnson) brings everyone's attention to a classified ad he found in a newspaper. The ad reads that the person responsible for it is looking for someone to travel through time with. It goes on to ominously state that the person who accompanies them on this adventure through time must bring their own weapons, and that their safety is not guaranteed. Jeff wants to track down the person behind this ad, and find out his story. He takes two interns at the magazine along with him. They include the cynical and depressed college student Darius (Aubrey Plaza, giving a wonderfully understated performance), and the shy and introverted Amau (Karan Soni).

When they arrive at the source of the mysterious ad, it turns out that Jeff really has little to no interest at all. This "story" was just an excuse to track down an old high school flame that he wants to reconnect with. This leaves most of the work up to Darius, who eventually tracks down the author of the ad. He is Kenneth (Mark Duplass), a bizarre recluse who comes across as being paranoid, constantly afraid that he is being hunted by government agents. He claims that he has indeed learned the secret behind time travel, but before he can trust Darius with information about his project, he has to put her through a series of tests and survival training. As Darius and Kenneth spend more time together, an odd but sweet relationship develops between these two outcasts who have known their share of pain in their lives, and begin to find kindred spirits in each other. Indeed, the more time Darius spends around Kenneth, she begins to suspect that there may be some truth to what he's talking about. I mean, just why are those mysterious cars always tailing Kenneth, and eventually Darius, everywhere they go?

If I remember Safety Not Guaranteed months from now for anything, it will be for the possible star-making performance of Aubrey Plaza, who is best known for her work on TV's Parks and Recreation. While she has a lot of work to her credit, this is the first project that really made me sit up and take notice of her. Her deadpan humor carries this movie for the most part, but she also comes across as being very vulnerable. The relationship that builds between Kenneth and her is not exactly a passionate one, but there is genuine warmth, and the performances of Plaza and Duplass really convey that. It is an offbeat relationship, built more out of finally finding someone who understands you, than genuine love. Although, by the end, they do seem to be getting much closer. These are both guarded people. She guards herself with sarcasm and a general disinterest to almost everything around her, while he has essentially secluded himself, and finds it difficult to let someone in.

If the movie had been about just them and their relationship, I probably could have fully supported it. But it keeps on getting sidetracked with plots and characters that never really go anywhere. The whole plot with Jeff tracking down his high school sweetheart seems promising and sweet at first, but it never really ends up going anywhere, and ultimately slows the pace of the film down. Truth be told, his plot ends quite abruptly. Even less developed is the plot concerning shy young intern Amau being unlucky in love, with Jeff essentially assigning himself to be his coach. This seems to have been thrown in just to give the character something to do, since he serves so little purpose in the film's main plot.

This is ultimately a sweet and low key movie that never offends, and does have a lot of charm. The film is R-rated, which is mystifying to me, as there is absolutely nothing here that I think anyone would deem inappropriate for a teenager. This movie had a lot of potential, and while it manages to meet it in a lot of areas, it still needed some tightening up in order to truly win me over.

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