Directed by Colin Trevorrow
(R)
***
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This small romantic comedy is “as sweet as it is eccentric—and it is wildly eccentric,” said Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times. Aubrey Plaza stars opposite Mark Duplass as a magazine intern assigned to answer a classified ad from a man who believes he’s invented a time machine. Yet the plot “can’t be described in any way that’s as enticing as it is to experience.” As an unlikely romance develops, Plaza and Duplass display “an easy, charming chemistry,” said Karina Longworth in The Village Voice. Duplass’s character claims to be heading back in time to save a lost love, and Plaza makes us feel how uncomfortable it is to fall for a man who can’t let go of the memory of another woman. Safety Not Guaranteed becomes “about regret,” said Mary Pols in Time. Duplass’s character manages, while exploring the past, to teach those around him to seize the present. The ending is unexpected, but if you embrace the mood of this movie, “it may just leave you smiling.”
