With
a budget well below $1 million, the Sundance Film Festival hit comedy “Safety
Not Guaranteed” asks us to be believe in time travel as reality not because of any
high-tech CGI gadgetry on screen, but because the lost soul at the center of
this remarkable, funny, and wide-eyed cynic-free tale truly believes in his ability to bend science. It’s all he has in his life, his only
shot at true happiness. Besides, the film opens with a journalist at “Seattle
Magazine,” pitching a profile feature that requires a long-distance trip of
several days, and two interns as assistants. That’s far less likely than time
travel.
So, Jeff (Jake M. Johnson) is the journalist, all wrinkled shirts,
coffee stains, and beard stubble, intrigued by a newspaper classified ad that seeks
a partner in time travel, “safety not guaranteed.” Jeff – highly cynical,
rudderless, a bit of an asshole, and much like many a journalist I know –
smells a kook, and think it will make for great reading fodder. Or so he
claims. His real mission is to get to the tiny Washington state beach front town
the ad originated from, and hook up with an old flame from his high school
years.
His interns are a lonely college student (Aubrey Plaza) still crushed by
the death of her mother, and an Indian science nerd (Karan Soni) afraid of
girls. They track down the ad’s time traveler, Kenneth Calloway (Mark Duplass),
a grocery clerk with a throbbing streak of loneliness, regret, paranoia, and
gun-love.
Plaza’s Darius goes undercover ABC News style as Kenneth’s
time-traveler companion, trying to get the scoop: Is Kenneth crazy, mentally
ill, dangerous, or a true time-traveling scientist. The answers are surprising,
endearing, and out-of-this-world-and-time awesome. I won’t dish on why Kenneth
wants to go back in time, but the lead up, and his refusal to let Darius see
the device leads to great comic highlights (a break-in at a tech firm whilst a
major company party is going on) and heartfelt (yes, Darius soon falls for Kenneth
and all his quirks, but her own quirks are just as strong life-suffocating). Meanwhile,
Jeff’s bid at reunited love goes awry, as it must, and he obsesses about
manning up Karan’s nerd.
Director Colin Trevorrow and writer Derek Connolly
paint a small portrait of adults who already are in a way time-traveling, their
minds and souls stuck in the past on regrets, things said wrong, and missed
opportunities. The final scenes, as FBI agents chase our reporters chasing
Kenneth are a blast, and made one college co-ed behind me in the theater near
jump out of her chair with a cheer. I agreed, and wanted to cheer that loud.
As with the characters, there are
some points here of much regret, mainly Karan’s character – the lonely,
giant-eye-glass wearing nerd from India studying science and afraid of women.
It’s an awful, old stereotype so over-used in film and TV, it may – if it hasn’t
already – surpass the sidekick cliché of the best pal who’s flaming, lisping,
cross-dressing gay. Both character types really ought not to appear in any form
of art not written by people older than high school age. That said, Duplass
gives an amazing performance as Kenneth, twisting audience sympathy and
distrust of him around on its head a dozen times over.
“Safety” may not have
big-screen pop! of much-loved time-travel Hollywood blockbusters such as “Back to
the Future” or “Terminator,” but it’s brain and heart is bigger, and I’d love
to go back in time and re-watch this film for the first time again and again. (And, hey, after the ugly “Men in Black 3,” the science of time travel needs a big pick-me-up.)
Cool fact: The ad that starts this film, which reads, “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” is real.
It was placed in a nature magazine
by a man from Oregon a bit more than 10 years ago. When every other film out
now in cinemas is a remake or a prequel/sequel, or based on a comic book, it’s
a blast to know one fresh idea can shine bright, and be based on a 150-letter
ad from a man who may be mental or more genius than we can ever know. A-
