Initially a film about an incurably bored hipster named Darius (Aubrey Plaza), “Safety Not Guaranteed” segues into something much more refined and thoughtful. Like another indie about an irrepressible and probably deranged schemer, “Bottle Rocket,” it may herald intriguing careers for its writer and director.
Plaza, of “Parks and Recreation,” seems insufferable for the first 20 minutes, sneering her way through a world that isn’t cool enough for her. An intern at a Seattle magazine, she feels humiliated by a lame assignment to go along with a senior writer and another intern to find the backwoods wack job who placed a classified ad seeking a partner to accompany him on a trip in his alleged time machine. The film’s title is a disclaimer contained in the ad.
The magazine writer (Jake M. Johnson, who looks like the rough draft they threw away before they came up with Mark Ruffalo) isn’t interested in the story, merely using the road trip as an excuse to track down an old girlfriend, and the other intern (Karan Soni) is a boring grind. But Kenneth (Mark Duplass), the yokel building the time machine, turns out to be good for a laugh. He’s all deadpan chatter about “the mission,” goofy survivalist training and muttering about how he’s being watched. His destiny appears to involve men in white suits with butterfly nets, but he’s harmless enough. Probably.
The film started to endear itself to me with its sad, odd little details (a guy with a fake ear, a car rammed into a house that leaves only a dent under the window). It becomes truly affecting when the big-city girl and the scruffy time-machine inventor begin to forge a surprising emotional connection. Both, it turns out, have sincere, heartbreaking reasons to wish they could go back to the past. Writer Derek Connolly, who won the Sundance screenplay award for this (the equally sensitive director is Colin Trevorrow) goes beyond indie clichés to understand these characters, find their humanity and make us feel for them.
The main flaw is that, as an actor, Duplass isn’t able to make the audience love him. Picture “Bottle Rocket”-era Owen Wilson in the role, and you’ve got something special. But if that film’s director, Wes Anderson, sometimes seems more interested in cool than warmth, “Safety Not Guaranteed” takes the risk of having feelings, and it’s richer for it.