The seed of the idea for Safety Not Guaranteed came from a classified ad in ‘Backwoods Home Magazine’ that got noticed by the Internet and eventually became something of a sensation. The reason it became a sensation is that it was so weird. How weird? It read, exactly, "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." See? Really weird. Eventually this mysterious ad caught the attention of screenwriter Derek Connolly, who wondered what sort of person would write something so strange and used his musings as the basis for this fictional account of its origins.
What we’re left with is the story of Kenneth (Mark Duplass), a lonely eccentric who says that he’s planning a trip to travel through time (his true intentions are not clear, but the fact that he’s really stealing high tech equipment to cobble something together is not), and who feels that he needs a partner to go along to provide moral support. Enter Jeff (Jake M. Johnson), a magazine writer who’s seen Kenneth’s ad and wants to write a human interest story on him. Or, at least, he wants to hook up with an old high school girlfriend who happens to live in the same town as Kenneth. Along for the trip are two young interns, the introverted and sassy Darius (Aubrey Plaza), and the introverted and nerdy Arnau (Karan Soni). It’s a quirky cast of characters to be sure, and they have a wealth of wacky interactions and experience a whole mess of personal growth along the way.
Along with unexpected relationships forming and life lessons learned comes comedy. In a movie that features names like Duplass, Plaza, and Johnson you would probably expect nothing less, and the good news is that the film delivers. Though much of the comedy is of the quirky, indie sort that might fly over some of the most mainstream audience members’ heads, the film never feels exclusionary or difficult for the sake of it, so generally it’s the sort of lighthearted romp that could be recommended to almost anyone. Connolly’s scripts brings the jokes and the mysteries (where Duplass’ character is concerned), and also manages to hit the mark in a few emotional moments. And Colin Trevorrow’s direction translates the words to the screen competently but unobtrusively. Safety not Guaranteed is a comfy chair of a movie.
The performances are the thing that really makes it succeed though. Plaza probably gets the bulk of the work here, as it’s through her eyes that we meet the other characters, and she gets a chance to spread her wings here like she has in nothing else she’s done so far. She starts the film as morose and detached, and early on I worried that she was just going to be relying on her already established persona to float through the film, but, as her undercover reconnaissance mission brings her closer and closer to Duplass’ Kenneth, suddenly her face starts lighting up with joy and a whole other dimension of what she has to offer as an actress gets revealed. It’s not really clear if she has the chops to anchor a project in the starring role yet, but her performance here points to potential that should afford her the chance to give it a shot sometime in the near future.
If Plaza makes up the meat of the film, then it’s Duplass who brings the sizzle to the steak. His portrayal of the mysterious and conflicted ad author combines the detached bluster of a Zach Galifianakis with the endearing vulnerability of a Jason Segel, and manages to be really endearing. On paper it doesn’t really seem like such an approach should work, seeing as Kenneth is always presented as a slippery character who you can never quite get a handle on, but somehow Duplass is able to hold everything together and make it work. The secret must have been all the headbands he wears.
On the opposite side of the coin is Johnson’s Jeff. Whereas Kenneth’s characterization is a bit convoluted, Jeff’s is a bit pointed and telegraphed. He starts off as the cocky asshole who doesn’t care about anything but himself, and it’s clear from the start that he’s going to soften and learn empathy by the time the end credits role. What isn’t clear is that his transformation is going to be so much fun to watch anyway. The character hits a low point involving whiskey, cigarettes, and go-karts that was the most fun thing I’ve seen in the theater in a while—and the moment of catharsis he reaches at the film’s climax? I don’t want to give anything about it away, but, suffice to say, it put a huge smile on my face.
What comes as an absolute shock is that Soni manages to steal the film out from under absolutely everybody. I have no idea where this kid came from, but he managed to be completely hilarious in the hacky role of Indian computer nerd who’s afraid of girls. Probably his character goes through the least legitimate character arc, as he’s doing the standard nerd-who-opens-up teen movie transformation, but somehow he managed to take material that was completely mundane on the surface and make it sing. I don’t know how many roles for funny brown guys there are out there that aren’t automatically going to go to Aziz Ansari, but it’s safe to say that Soni is going to be stealing a handful of them in the future.
Not everything completely works here though. Primarily, the relationship that develops between Duplass’ character and Plaza’s character comes a bit too fast, too easy, and doesn’t quite play as being authentic. Kenneth, whether he can really travel through time or not, is an unhinged weirdo who’s probably not completely safe to be around, and Darius’ immediate and illogical assumption that he’s a big ol’ softy whose detached from reality day-to-day existence is more charming than off-putting is never quite believable. And, if I want to pick nits, I have to bring up the fact that the idea of a magazine writer getting paid to travel, along with two interns, in order to do investigative journalism on a quirky puff piece is completely ridiculous. The Jeff character drives an Escalade and brags about his expensive condo no less. In order for that to be believable, everyone would have had to travel back in time before this story ever started and end up in a decade where people still made good money writing for publications; and that would have ruined the mystery at the heart of the film.
Stupid nitpicking aside, that core mystery was indeed the lynchpin. For Safety Not Guaranteed’s entire runtime the journalist characters are investigating Kenneth, wondering what exactly he’s doing. Is he crazy or is he sane? Is he a genius or is he a simpleton? What’s that thing he’s building in his shed? Will it really travel through time or is it going to end up hurting a lot of people? We don’t really get any answers until the very end, and that’s a lot of time to be left in the dark. Seeing as the audience is never let in on what’s going on, the film can meander, and its success was largely dependent on how satisfying the eventual resolution was going to be. Hit the right note and all would be forgiven, miss the mark and the movie would have been a borderline failure. I’m happy to report that the end of this film elicited audible cheers from the audience I saw it with, and it left me walking out of the theater grinning with satisfaction. Consequently, it’s not hard to call it an easy recommendation.
