Safety Not Guaranteed
Posted by dailypop on January 27, 2012
The film Safety Not Guaranteed has been causing a stir at this year’s Sundance Film Festival where science fiction seems to have pervaded the screen. A time travel story based on a classifieds ad from 1997 has grabbed the imagination of movie goers.
A pair of frustrated interns at a local magazine spot an unusual ad asking for time travel companions. It is specified that they must bring their own arms and supplies and that their safety cannot be guaranteed.
Searching for the true story behind the classifieds ad leads to some unexpected events and opportunities to right wrongs and change history… or not.
The mystery man, Mark Duplass’s Kenneth, is easy to find, but hard to interview: A paranoid whose hermetic tendencies and iffy fashion sense peg him as a possible Unabomber, Kenneth figures Jeff is “one of them” and refuses to talk. Taking this as his cue to go hunting for his ex, Jeff sends in Darius — not as a journalist, but as a candidate to join Kenneth’s mysterious mission back to 2001.
Plaza plays the start of Darius’s infiltration as she might a storyline on Parks and Rec — she’s patronizing Kenneth in a way we find hilarious but that he can’t see, adopting his hard-ass “when things go down” lingo and convincing him she’s right for the job. But as they get to know each other, Plaza warms to an extent we haven’t seen. She’s convincingly fond of the guy who’s teaching her to use firearms and decipher coded messages.For his part, Duplass keeps his oft-employed Everydude charisma in check: Kenneth is a wounded, mockably serious man, and the actor doesn’t start making him warm and fuzzy when it’s time for us to like him. Though the script shows us what’s underneath his facade — in a gorgeous scene, Kenneth plays zither and sings a sweet song by Guster’s Ryan Miller — we come around to Kenneth on his terms.
(Via Hollywood Reporter)
Director Colin Trevorrow talks about the back story of the film
Here is a fan-made trailer for a fictional film based on the erstwhile time traveler… which looks to be made from Jean Claude Van Damme’s rejected material.
