Review: Safety Not Guaranteed

 

(2012) Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass

 

 

After seeing the trailer for this film I was instantly intrigued by its premise and overall style, the addition of Aubrey Plaza who I loved in Scott Pilgrim VS The World was another big selling point. The story centres around 3 reporters and a man named Kenneth, who claims to have built a working time machine and needs a willing companion to travel back in time with him. The 3 leads set off to find Kenneth after seeing his advert in a local newspaper, the other 2 members of the journalistic team played by Jake Johnson and Karan Soni are very 2d and have extremely predictable outcomes. One is the nerd who wants the girl and the other is the egotist that is desperately clinging to his college glory years, in fact Jake Johnson's character may well have stepped straight out of New Girl and into this film because I could hardly tell the difference in character portrayal. The on screen interaction between Aubrey plaza and Mark Duplass (Kenneth) is frankly heart warming and you really get a sense that she takes great delight in letting go of mainstream life and getting involved in this fantastic world Kenneth has created. This is an indie film and so therefore doesn't cater to all tastes in terms of humour or its overall message but I couldn't help biting my nails whilst going back and forth in my mind thinking 'has he actually travelled space and time or not!?'

 

 

Verdict



Safety Not Guaranteed was a breath of fresh air to me and had an extremely effective tone and a good payoff. Some may be but of by it's 'indie' tones and particular style of sarcastic humour. yes there are also a few character cliques and predictable scenario outcomes but I think this is a good film to take a risk on if you are looking for something abit different. 

 

3/5