Thursday, June 28, 2012

Review: Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), dir. Colin Trevorrow


The following review is spoiler free and is meant to be read BEFORE seeing the movie.

It’s times like these where I’m reminded I’m not a film critic, but just a lowly blogger who also has a podcast, something everybody and their mother already does. I have really nothing to add to the discussion about Safety Not Guaranteed. I have nothing to say that hasn’t already been said in reviews by people who are ACTUALLY film critics/journalists/historians.

I will say simply this: I enjoyed this character piece so much that I wanted to watch it again the second it was over. This movie was light to be sure, and it doesn’t pack a heavy emotional wallop, but it has two lead characters who make me wish I could talk to them and spend time with them. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed watching this.

Aubrey Plaza plays Darius, an unpaid intern at a Seattle Magazine (her boss is the sadly underused Mary Lynn Rajskub). She is sent on an assignment to investigate an ad asking for a partner to travel back in time for unspecified reasons. From here she meets the man who placed the ad, an eccentric named Ken.

The rest of this film is an excuse to study regret and how different people deal with it. Some people dwell on it; some people fear to think about it; some people try to make sure nobody will ever make the mistakes they did. For the people who want to dismiss it because of the premise of time travel, it isn’t as high concept as it sounds. It’s so much better than it sounds.

Rating:
«««½
 (3.5/4)

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