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Safety Not Guaranteed Movie

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Written by Jonathan Jacobs

Darius, Jeff and Arnau are three colleagues at a news magazine. Jeff agrees to travel to Seattle in order to disinter sordid details about a private citizen claiming to be able to travel through time. Arnau is only too happy to accompany his boss because he is diffident and reticent and desperately needs an infusion of extroversion. Their target is the self-proclaimed time traveler who has placed a classified advertisement in a local newspaper. Kenneth is seeking a partner in crime to aid and abet him on his mission to travel back in time to redress a grievous wrong. He rejects Jeff out of hand because Jeff is a rather dogmatic and bombastic person. This causes Darius to be their go-to-woman. She volunteers and succeeds where her boss had utterly failed.

Though under a false pretense, Darius spends an exorbitant amount of time with Kenneth; more time than the assignment calls for. Meanwhile, Jeff cavorts with his ex-girlfriend (the one that got away) and falls madly in love only to be heartbroken a second time. This heartbreak causes Jeff to focus his attention on helping Arnau become a ladies' man, man's man, man about town. All the while, Darius is busy falling in love with Kenneth, a man who she has yet to de-puzzle. Kenneth could be a lunatic or a luminary and viewers will not find out until the very end. Sundry things are for certain; he possesses esoteric knowledge about lasers and robotics, clearly wants to rectify things with his ex-girlfriend, and he is a genuine person to the core. After having suffered a childhood without her mother, this sincerity is just what the doctor ordered for poor young Darius.

Safety Not Guaranteed (movie) may not be Titanic or The Notebook, but it has its moments. Director Trevorrow knows precisely how to encourage actors to simulate falling in love. Aubrey Plaza makes ordinary actors look glittery. She blends flirtatiousness with honesty with beauty and this is a special formula. Plaza is the lone bright spot in this slapdash, silly-ass movie. Safety Not Guaranteed (movie) is not a thriller or an epic romance but it is passable. Given the relatively unknown cast of actors and the meager budget, mediocrity is actually an achievement. Two time machines up...up...and away.

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