Time travel. The concept is mind mucking and brain bending. Hot on the chronosynclastic infundibula heels of the splendid LOOPERS comes the sublime and sweetly sensational gentle indie piece called SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED (M) where a looney loner in Washington State coastal town advertises for a partner to time travel back to 2001.

A Seattle magazine writer with two interns in tow journeys to the backwater to interview the potential time traveller with an ulterior motive to catch up with an old flame. Relinquishing his journalistic duties to the female intern, the reporter pursues his lost love.

As the intern inveigles her way into the trust of the time traveller, we discover that the motive of his mission is to reconnect with a lost love also.

Parallel stories in almost parallel universes bring unparalleled pleasures in this whip smart and comically clever picture written by Derek Connolly and directed by Colin Trevorrow.

Romantic comedy with a tincture of science fiction, an imaginative and inventive take on the time travel theme, SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED, is a laugh out loud lament on loss and longing, given emotional punch with a bunch of perfectly pitched performances.

Aubrey Plaza, edgily deadpan as Depressed Debbie in DAMSELS IN DISTRESS, is dazzling as Darius, the female intern who connects with the kooky Kenneth, sweetly played by Mark Duplass.

Changing the past, preventing the future, altering the present – the mission is different for everyone, but the power to hope for something better is universal. Think along the lines of BACK TO THE FUTURE directed by Woody Allen or Whit Stillman.

© Richard Cotter

18th October, 2012

Tags: Sydney Movie Reviews- SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED, Sydney Arts Guide, Richard Cotter.