Dir: Colin Trevorrow
Stars: Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson
Safety Not Guaranteed is a low-budget feature from debut director Colin Trevorrow, which derives its title and central premise from a 1997 classified advertisement posted by a supposedly experienced time traveller in search of an assistant. The original ad was actually written last minute by a newspaper employee, and recently found a second life as an internet meme; yet Trevorrow’s film instead tells the fictitious story of a pig-headed journalist and two socially awkward interns who set out to track down the eccentric who posted the advert and exploit his probable incompetence for the sake of a light-hearted magazine story.
Safety Not Guaranteed is about as good as you’d expect a film based on a meme to be. There are frequent early references to Facebook and Craigslist to remind the intended demographic that what they’re watching is set in the 21st century, despite most of the action taking place in a forest or a suburban home. The movie is more a romantic comedy than a sci-fi piece, yet it still must understandably exist in a world in which time travel is possible; although it's also apparently the case that in this world every female character is regarded as considerably more ugly than she appears, whilst the men are all supposed to be much more attractive - despite being utter tools. Casual sexism aside, the characters are still a pretty hollow bunch whose intentions and emotions rarely manage to engage the audience enough to care, and are instead either just affectedly ‘kooky’ stock characters or lazily written stereotypes.
Rather than injecting the oddball humour into the amateur master/desperate apprentice relationship that is present in films such as Super and God Bless America, Safety Not Guaranteed is a much more slower and forgettable adventure that is just about interesting enough to hold your attention for an hour and a half, but is ultimately predictable and unrewarding. It goes to show that a mildly amusing 36-word meme may not be the strongest basis of a screenplay, especially if you completely ignore the “I have only done this once before” part. Maybe Trevorrow’s next adaptation, "Condescending Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", will bring him more luck.
6 / 10
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