Saturday, December 22, 2012

Guest Review: Safety Not Guaranteed


Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

"Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 91 Ocean View, WA 99393. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before."

I never thought a movie based on a fake newspaper classified ad could be so endearing.  When I first saw the trailer for Safety Not Guaranteed I immediately got on my iPad and added it to my Netflix queue. That's how excited I was to see it. Not only was it something of a dream cast for me, including Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation), Jake M. Johnson (New Girl), and Mark Duplass (director: Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives at Home and Actor: The League), but it also had a killer trailer featuring a comical sci-fi plot. It simply had everything going for it. After two viewings and thorough examination, it's safe to say that Safety Not Guaranteed lived up to my lofty expectations.

Safety Not Guaranteed is set in the picturesque, but dreary Pacific Northwest. A place often tied to mystery and intrigue, think D.B. Cooper and Bigfoot, here it is home to a potential time traveler.  Darius (Plaza) is interning for a Seattle magazine when Jeff (Johnson), a featured writer at the magazine, pitches an article about a man in Ocean View, WA who claims he needs a partner to travel through time with him. Darius and another intern named Arnau, an awkward college student, both volunteer to help Jeff write the piece and the threesome head out to Ocean View to find author of the classified ad.

Finding the time traveler isn't much of a problem, but gaining his trust is. Darius finds out that he works at a local grocery store and asks around to find out that his name is Kenneth and that he is quite eccentric. With this information, Jeff decides to go to Kenneth's home and inquire about the classified. Kenneth senses Jeff's disingenuous intentions and runs him off his property.  From this failure, it is decided that Darius will be the group's representative for dealing with Kenneth. Darius and Kenneth develop an amazing connection and the group gets more than enough material for their story.



Along the way, the audience finds out that Jeff's real motive for coming to Ocean View is not to write Kenneth's time travel story, but to rekindle a past flame that he had in high school. The woman from the past is named Belinda and she still lives in town. Jeff is apprehensive about meeting her at first but falls deeply for her.

The last quarter of the movie is packed with momentum and leads to a magical ending. Jeff is sure to deliver one of the best articles the magazine will ever see. This is very much a character driven movie, focusing on the relationships that each of them have or have had. Kenneth and Jeff are both defined by their past relationships. Darius and Arnau are defined by the lack there of. Belinda's actions can be traced to her past as well.

The performances are all solid but Duplass' stands out. As delirious as he seems, Kenneth feels like a character you could actually meet in real life. Keeping this character believable is a monumental achievement because it is essential to the final outcome of the movie.  Plaza and Johnson prove that they are both worthy of moving from television to film. Plaza's understated style meshes perfectly with Johnson's more abrasive personality.

Safety Not Guaranteed, at face value at least, seems to be a movie about time travel. It's actually about much more than that. It's a movie about what it means to be a human and have a meaningful relationship. Every time that we let someone in close to us, we do so knowing that the person we are letting in could hurt us at any time. Darius puts herself out there for Kenneth and she is reciprocated with affection from him. Jeff decides that he is ready to settle down after a life of bachlordom with Belinda, but he gets shut down. There is no protection from heartbreak; safety is not guaranteed.

A-


  • The scene where Darius meets Kenneth is perfect. I could watch that sequence 100 times. When she puts the can on the shelf without looking is too much.
  • There will never be enough time travel movies.
  • "Why are there flames on your laptop." "It's a gaming laptop. It's really fast."
  • My summary is intentionally brief, it'd be a more coherent review if I added more, but if you want to know more, just watch the movie.

2 comments:

  1. What did you think about Jeff's relationship with Belinda compared to Darius's relationship with Kenneth? Did you enjoy it or find it as authentic as that of Darius and Kenneth's? I found the relationship of Darius and Kenneth to have a great deal of authenticity along the films two best characters. For both of these reasons I really enjoyed this relationship. I found Jeff to be somewhat of a one not character as he really seemed very shallow up until he suddenly was in love with Belinda. This made it hard for me to buy into this character and this relationship. When I was able to put there relationship to the side and give it less thought and focused more the relationship of Darius and Kenneth, was when I really enjoyed the film and took something away from it. Great review, Joshua!

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  2. I liked the Jeff and Belinda relationship because it produced a great dichotomy to counter the highly successful D-K relationship. Jeff was a shallow person in the beginning, but he shows growth when he suddenly decides he is ready for a commitment, even though it's all for naught. I'm not sure there was enough developments to really buy in that he was genuinely ready to settle down with Belinda though. You're right there. I think they could have handled Jeff's growth a little better but I like that there was one great relationship and one that wasn't meant to be.

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