Safety Not Guaranteed

A Time-Travel Movie With Seemingly No Paradoxes

Not long ago I reviewed the greatly entertaining Looper, which was one of cinema history's finer time-travel films (though far from the best). But I noted, like all time travel films, it wasn't without its plot holes or paradoxes. Back to the Future is litered with them. Most are stricken with an inherent problem: anything that transpired during the going-back-to-the-future would have already happened. In Looper, Bruce Willis (as the older character going back in time) technically would already know everything that was going to happen (and there's an even more major plot-hole but discussing that would ruin the ending). Anyway, of the time-travel films I've seen, the ones that come closest to containing zero paradoxes or plot holes related to the issues of time travel are Timecrimes, Primer, and possibly 12 Monkeys, but I'd have to re-watch that again to say for sure. The previously mentioned films are all great, by the way.

Anyway, here we come to Safety Not Guaranteed, a time travel film that as I see it, contains no plot holes. Arguments could be made about the ending, but I won't go there for spoilers sake. But it also contains little time travel, so that could be a darn good reason. More so, this is an uplifting, touching, dramedy about three reporters and one very interesting, obviously disturbed, man. But the film regards him not with disdain, but understanding and tenderness. Aubrey Plaza is the most major character in the film, existing in most of the scenes, and she does a tremendous job, showing range outside her dead-pan, sardonic humor that has been central to most of her prior work. She is starring in the upcoming film The To-Do List (2013, I believe), which was previously titled The Hand Job, appearing on the 2009 or 2010 blacklist, I forget. I read and reviewed that script on ScriptShadow (where I admittedly overused the hyphen, mainly due to Microsoft Word's insistent upon it, but I ought have known better), and while I noted some flaws in the script, I generally liked it overall. It'll probably be billed as a comedy, but it's truly a coming-of-age dramedy, and I think will give Plaza an ability to show off more of her acting chops.

But back to Safety Not Guaranteed. I'd been waiting to see this for a while, as the trailer appealed to me, and I liked the actors; Jake Johnson who I first saw on the TV series New Girl, Aubrey Plaza, and Mark Duplass, and some guy I've never seen and didn't stand out in the film. They were all excellent.

On the story. It regards three reporters who are trying to get a story about a guy who's placed an ad in the paper wanting a partner to go back in time with him. They obviously think it's a joke, or he's crazy. It quickly becomes clear it's not a joke. So is he crazy? I shall not say what I think, but part of the problem I have with the last 15 minutes or so of the film is that it doesn't bother to answer it either. It builds up the possibility that he is seriously mentally ill, but fails to offer any sort of catharsis to that dramatic element. It also feels as though the end, particularly the last five minutes, were written in a way as if the writer just wanted to get it over with. In other words, the very end is quite hasty, failing to take any time to build toward any sort of satisfaction.

Beyond that, the first two acts are wonderful. They're funny. Charming. Uplifting. One of the film's greatest qualities is its ability to make us feel like doing something more with our lives. And I can't quite point to why it has that ability. But it does radiate that "anything is possible if you make it so" feeling. And that was delightful.

This is a fun film. A good film. A film I will undoubtedly revisit. I just wish some more effort had gone into the ending.

3.5/4