I recently made the decision to spend a Friday night in and rented Safety Not Guaranteed on Amazon. This is not to say most of my evenings are actually spent out of my house (or even more specifically my bed), but the movie was recommended to me and the effort of actually renting a movie is a little outside my norm. Anyway, it was definitely a good decision. Safety Not Guaranteed is an understated comedy with a delightful science fiction twist. The premise is fairly straightforward: a newspaper reporter drags two interns to a sleepy Washington town to investigate the poster of a mysterious personal ad that reads, "Wanted: Someone to go back in time with me." Intern Darius quickly takes an interest in the case and starts to get close to the time-traveller, Kenneth. The film teases us with information--has he been back in time? Is the entire project being watched? But at the heart of the story we aren't asked can they go back in time, but the reason why people would desire to travel back in time. Can we return to a happier time that seems lost to us, or even correct the mistakes of the past? Whatever the answer, it's an enjoyable, understated film from start to finish.
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