91% Safety Not Guaranteed

The deserving winner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED is a charming genre crosser. Things start off in typical indie fashion. Aubrey Plaza, often the deadpan highlight of PARKS AND RECREATION, is an unpaid Seattle Magazine intern who is enlisted by one of its laziest staff writers (Jake Johnson from NEW GIRL) to do an investigative piece on a man who places a personal ad looking for a time travel partner. Based on an actual listing, the film takes the expected course of finding wry humor in our main characters' stakeouts. Plaza eventually becomes the main reporter here as she works up considerable rapport with the mysterious Kenneth (played by Mark Duplass, who is having a very good year as an actor and director). Their oddball chemistry is partly why this film stands out. Had it run its usual course, the way so many "Sundance" movies do, we would have been left with a sweet yet unambitious trifle. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED , however, has much more on its mind. The undercurrent here is science fiction, specifically time travel, and it's not afraid to ask the tough questions associated with it. Throughout the film, we're meant to wonder if Kenneth is insane, or if he truly has built a time machine. Every scene has this unspoken drive, because we are propelled forward with the hope that this low-budget film just may turn magical. It's definitely something I miss with indie film ---- magic. We often get truth. We often get grit. We often get quirk. But seldom are we knocked out by something unexpected. Without spoiling a thing, SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED decides to take that extra step and deliver a wonderful surprise. Understated, low budget, yet wonderful nonetheless. At the screening I attended, Director Colin Trevorrow was there. He told us that Derek Connolly wrote the lead part specifically for Aubrey Plaza. It shows. This film gives her a chance to stretch beyond the one-note schtick she usually employs. She has heart, and so does this lovely film.

June 24, 2012

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