Safety Not Guaranteed

I had to let this movie sit a while before I could figure out how I felt about it. And the more I sat, the more annoyed I became. There are unresolved plot threads and go-nowhere plot threads everywhere. Is the lead some kind of thief/terrorist? Is he crazy? Did he really successfully travel in time once before, or was he lying about his ex dying in a car accident? Why don’t the agents following him actually stop him? What is the point of either the reporter’s storyline revisiting a high school fling, or trying to get his male intern laid? This movie wants to leave an air of mystery surrounding its oddball protagonist and his desire to time travel, but he, and the movie itself, are unreliable narrators. Plot threads that are irrelevant — like the reporter trying to rekindle an old flame — are seen through to the end, even if that end contributes nothing to the movie beyond filling time. Plot threads that should have resolution — like the agents knowing the protagonist stole something from a laser lab in another state — go nowhere. And then there’s the awkward and a little skeevy romance at the center of the movie. The age difference feels a little weird, but worse is that the male lead seems genuinely unhinged, and the female lead is emotionally damaged in her own way. What they don’t need is each other, but the movie wants us to accept that this pairing is fine because it’s quirky. It isn’t. It feels forced and it feels wrong. It’s just a mess. A big mess. It wants to be charming, and it should be. It wants to be quirky, and it should be. But it actively works against itself at every turn.