Plaza plays Darius, a depressed
college grad who isn’t sure about her future.
She lives with her father—who notes her unhappiness—and interns at a
magazine run by misfits. Despite her
intelligence, Darius can’t land a paying job as a waitress because of the
palpable gloominess surrounding her.
“You’re just not a quality hire,”
concludes one restaurant manager.
Seems Darius hasn’t quite gotten
over the death of her mother, who died making a convenience store run for her
then-ungrateful daughter. But there’s
hope; our heroine’s favorite song is “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
Fortune throws Darius a lifeline
when she’s recruited by goofy columnist Jeff (Jake M. Johnson) to help
investigate an enigmatic classified in a local newspaper: Wanted. Somebody 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.
Who posted the ad? Why?
Can he (or she) be serious?
Darius joins Jeff on an Escalade adventure to
Ocean View, Washington, where they trace the message to a reclusive grocery
store clerk named Ken (Mark Duplass).
Also along for the ride is intern Arnau, a brainy biology student
who wants to diversify his resume at the cost of enjoying his youth.
Jeff sees the assignment as a working vacation,
and hopes to make a love connection with an old fling. But he strikes out with Ken, who doesn’t
register any emotional pain in the writer’s eyes. So Darius is dispatched to answer the ad
instead.
The pretty intern earns paranoid Ken’s approval
and spends weeks learning firearms and hand-to-hand combat in the woods behind
his house. She dutifully reports back to
Jeff—who becomes smitten with his ex-girlfriend—but harbors serious doubts
about her paranoid partner’s time-travel proposition. Ken isn’t bad with a pistol, but his
sorrowful jujitsu skills and love of all things STAR WARS do little
to dispel others’ perception of him as a weird, harmless dreamer. But this apparent lonesome loser has a few secrets
of his own.
Image-minded Jeff turns his attention to geeky
Arnaut, urging the bespectacled bookworm to take an active interest in the
opposite sex and enjoy a couple beers at a high school football game. Seems Arnaut is just as socially inept as
Ken.
“Stormtroopers don’t know anything about
lasers,” he insists. “They’re blue
collar workers.”
Meanwhile, Darius infiltrates Ken’s confidence
by telling him her “mission” is to return to a past where her mother still
lives. Satisfied, the tight-lipped Ken
welcomes Darius into his private world.
His exploits (such as a late-night burglary at a medical laboratory)
continue to baffle, but Darius drops her guard when her host reveals a
softer side.
Is Ken’s scheme legit? Does he make good on his promise to turn back
the clock for both of them, or is he just some misguided hack collecting
mechanical parts in his garage?
It doesn’t matter. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED isn’t really about time
travel—not unless you’re talking about capitalizing on the here-and-now. Director Colin Trevorrow and writer Derk
Connolly wisely focus on the characters and their motivations rather than technology
and action. Duplass (who plays a
heartachingly vulnerable Ken) is no slouch himself; the CYRUS and JEFF, WHO
LIVES AT HOME filmmaker is himself a master storyteller when it comes to dissecting
the concerns of (fleeting) youth and themes of risk and regret. It’s spirit—not science—that powers this flux
capacitor, and this charming script (based on an Internet meme) brought the 2012
Waldo Salt Screenwriter’s Award to Connolly’s mantel.
The movie title isn’t referencing the dangers of
actual time travel, but rather the potential psychic burdens of simply
living day to day, in real time (notwithstanding jokes about dinosaurs
and elves). SAFETY is a clever, funny little
picture with a little chicken soup for the dreamer in each of us. The cast of relative unknowns truly make
their characters spark, from Karan Soni’s shy Arnaut and Jenica Bergere’s
fragile Liz to Duplass’ disarming Ken—who serendades Darius with sweet zither-song
by firelight. These people resonate
because they’re fickle, fallible, faith-challenged—and therefore plausible, if
not dowrnight likeable. 3 ½ out of 4
stars.
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