nomadreader

The premise of Safety Not Guaranteed is a great one: someone places a classified ad seeking a partner to travel in time. The title is the same as the ad's last line. When Seattle Magazine  writer Jeff ( New Girl 's Jake Johnson) takes two interns (Aubrey Plaza and Karan Soni) to see who the person is. With such a great premise and a good cast, I had high hopes, but Safety Not Guaranteed  flounders between two many genres. At times it's a witty satire, at time softly poignant, at times inspiring, and at time eye-rollingly bad. I rarely knew what the filmmaker wanted from me, and while I love a genre-defining mash-up, this attempt lacked consistency and clarity of focus. For every moment I loved, there was one I hated. There were moments of brilliance, but there were also far too many moments of boredom for a film only 86 minutes long. As a first film, some of these sins are forgiveable, and I will gladly tune in to see what Derek Connolly writes next. Rating: 3 out of 5 ...