Safety Not Guaranteed

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Under the Radar

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Here we have something on the more charming side of the whole time travel thing. While it may not be a film that makes you think (it's a breath of fresh air after 'Primer', for sure) and put your brain to work on finding whatever loopholes are in the time travel plot, it's rather a story grounded a little more in reality, and offers up good use of audience imagination. The question of whether time travel is possible or not is explored more so than the time travel itself - all taking place in present day.

We are introduced to Darius Britt (Aubrey Plaza), an intern for Seattle Magazine, as well as one of the magazine's writers, Jeff Schwensen (Jake Johnson). Jeff proposes that the magazine does a story on the source of a classified ad in the paper. The ad requests a partner for time travel, and is written incognito, but eventually we learn it's a guy named Kenneth Calloway (Mark Duplass). Darius is sent in to use her charms to get a story from the guy, but soon gets caught up in Kenneth's full belief that he can time travel.

Meanwhile, being in town anyway, Jeff seeks out an old flame, Liz (Jenica Bergere), and a whole side story happens there as well. Not to downplay it though. It actually develops Jeff's character quite nicely, and adds to the charm of the whole movie. But the heart and soul of the film is definitely Kenneth. He's that guy who believes in crazy stuff so vividly that, while he may come across as a tad creepy, you can't help but appreciate him for being able to think outside the box as he does.

If you're looking for a full-fledged time travel movie here, you'll never find it. But that, to me at least, keeps it interesting - a movie about time travel, but not a time travel movie. Again, whenever it comes to time travel movies, there's almost always something anyone can spot as an error in the time loop. This just avoids all of that by making it about the concept more than the event, and I have to appreciate it for that, even though it may come as just another romance movie to others.

As I've mentioned before, there's honestly just a simple charm to this movie. It doesn't over complicate anything, you like and care about the characters, and it's actually really quite funny, too. Now, I should probably also mention that this is the nicest I think I've ever seen Aubrey Plaza as a character. She's kinda that girl next door type here, and it's a nice change from how we usually see her - typecast as a *ahem* well, I won't use the word, but if you've seen her in almost anything, you know. This is a nice opportunity to see the sweeter side of her.

5/5

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