At once sweet, earnest and brutally funny Safety Not Guaranteed is a terrific film that manages to deliver a mixture of heart, pathos and comedy without ever feeling too light or too heavy handed.

Inspired by an ad that ran in a 1997 issue of Backwoods Home Magazine as a joke/filler for the magazine’s classifieds section, Safety Not Guaranteed asks what if the ad was not a joke but rather someone legitimately looking for a time traveling partner. After seeing the ad in a newspaper, which reads: Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed, Seattle based magazine reporter Jeff Schwensen (Jake Johnson) pitches a feature story on the ad’s writer to editor Bridget (Mary Lynn Rajskub) who approves the story and let’s him take two interns Darius (Aubrey Plaza) and Arnau (Karan Soni) down to Oceanside, WA to find out who wrote the ad and why. Upon reaching their destination, Jeff reveals that he took the assignment mostly because a former flame of his lives in town and he wants to rekindle that romance. This leaves Darius and Arnau on their own to find the ad-writer which they do by staking out the PO Box specified in the ad. They identify the writer as Kenneth Calloway (Mark Duplass), a reclusive grocery store employee who lives in a secluded old house  and spends his time at work regaling his co-workers with the vagaries of time travel and quantum mechanics. Jeff approaches him as a potential partner but Kenneth quickly sees through Jeff’s smug smirking. Jeff sends Darius in for her deadpan detachment and inherent appeal as an attractive woman. Kenneth appears to be a garden variety crazy person at first but the deeper Darius gets in the screening process the more she realizes that there is a real person under all that…and that he might not be so crazy when she discovers there actually are people following him.

There are a lot of different ways a comedy about an ad about time travel could go. It could have gone in some action sci-fi route or something with more horror based overtones or it could go wacky and broad but instead Safety Not Guaranteed used the jumping off point to study people and relationships and what it means to be broken. In doing so it also lacks the fear in really getting in deep with the characters. It would be easy to paint Kenneth as nothing more than a garden variety nut bar but there is more to him beneath his extreme paranoid and his absolute conviction in what he believes in. There is hurt, anger and sensitivity as well. Likewise with Jeff, who initially comes off as a smarmy dick with no regard for anyone other than himself who could have remained so after all is said and done…and he kind of does except he does regard others and proves himself to be capable of compassion and caring while still remaining to be a self centered dick. He is a funny dick though so the audience manages to still care about him. For her part, Darius is also very broken and as her relationship with Kenneth deeps she finds herself conflicted between liking who he is and thinking he is crazy. Arnau also goes on a journey of discovery with Jeff that is a bit more conventional but satisfying nonetheless.

All this talk about heart and meaningful personal interaction might paint the picture of a heavy drama but that is really not the case here. The humor in film is biting and sometimes off sides. It is not afraid to allow the characters to be less than charitable and it isn’t afraid to make jokes that aren’t all safe and cuddly. This blend between earnest, heartfelt character work and sometimes mean-spirited and off-color humor is kind of amazing because it works so effectively. But even still, even when the jokes are cutting and a bit mean, the movie never really makes fun of Kenneth or fails to take his point of view seriously. That is really something when they could have just made him a caricature and called it a day.

The performances are really great here and that helps the material along immensely. If Jake Johnson’s tone had been off even a little, Jeff would have gone from likeable dick to just plain dick. Aubrey Plaza mines a similar vein initially as a depressed and disaffected woman who fails to find joy in live but who feels superior to others but breaks out of her type-casting a bit as Darius starts to become more deeply drawn into Kenneth’s world. Mark Duplass is excellent as Kenneth and infuses him with just the right amount of humanity by taking him seriously as a person and never slips into mockery even at his most paranoid.

Conclusion [9.5 out of 10]

Safety Not Guaranteed is a terrific film with great comedy, complex characters and excellent performances. The pacing may turn some viewers off as it takes its time getting where it needs to go but the trip is worth it. Some may also be frustrated with some of the ambiguity involved, particularly in the third act but again, for my money, it was all pretty excellent. This is a rare gem of a film in the crowded noise of summer blockbusters and it really shines. Its theatrical run is pretty small (though growing) but seek this out wherever you can because it is worth it.