The Case for Guaranteed Safety

There were several reasons I wanted to go and see Safety Not Guaranteed.

The first hook was the promise of a quirky film.  I love those sorts of films.

Then there was the promise of the cast delivering the aforementioned quirkiness.  This was not a vast collection of ultrafit superheroes in skin tight costumes (not that there is anything wrong with that), but a small assortment of kooky actors the majority of whom I recognised from some of their work on the small screen.  First off, the awesome Aubrey Plaza, mostly seen in Parks and Recreation, putting her sour, youthful looks to good use here as intern Darius.  Then there is the also awesome Mary Lynn Rajskub, who has been a bit all over the place really but whom I think is wonderful wherever I have seen her.  And thirdly, the loud and brash but completely likeable Jake Johnson as Jeff, playing almost exactly the same character he plays in The New Girl except this time his character has a job.

The quirky story starts when Jeff takes interns Darius and Arnau (Karan Sani) to a small town on the coast to track down a local man who is looking for a partner to take with him back in time.  They find the quirky Kenneth (Mark Duplass) working in a local convenience store, and Darius takes on the mission of getting closer to him.  

At first, it seems a fairly family friendly premise, and there were several families at my screening - though I did wonder what the parents thought of the fairly colourful language Jeff is wont to use.  It is actually quite jarring to hear Jeff curse like a trooper, as every other character seems almost allergic to using harsh language, but it works for the character despite that.

The film is full of little triumphs and little poignant moments.  And of course Plaza's huge, judgemental eyes.  With all those rewards, it was pretty easy to overlook the fact that... well, that the facts really didn't add up in the end.  Jeff's reconnection with a high school sweetheart is a very, well, sweet interlude, but it doesn't really go anywhere.  As to the timetravelling, that is something I really shouldn't even try and hint at, so I won't.

Nonetheless, despite it ending a bit messily, I have to say I enjoyed the film.  I can't say I enjoyed it immensely, as it doesn't really work or pretend to be on that scale.  Safety Not Guaranteed seems very happy to be a small film with small ambitions.  And there is nothing wrong with that.

Verdict: Safety Not Guaranteed doesn't really take a huge amount of risks, with a great comedic cast and a winning sense of whimsy.  It all plods along slowly, assuredly, though in the end, I was a little bewildered as to where we ended up.  8 wanted ads out of 10.