Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

I watched this twice. I would like to watch this again - what a wonderful surprise.

This is a charming story of love and friendship clocking in at 85 minutes. Short and sweet but not too sweet.  There is plenty of tart and sad here as well.  There are two real story lines, and the director, Colin Trevorrow, does a great job with them. One is a side story and it stays on the sidelines, which is perfect.

The main story centers around a reporter and two interns for Seattle Times magazine who go to a small Washington coastal town to investigate a classified ad.  The ad was placed by someone looking for a time travel companion - must bring your own weapons, safety not guaranteed.

The potential time traveler, Ken, is played by Mark Duplass (of the Duplass brothers) and he is pretty paranoid. Only one of the reporters, Darius (Aubrey Plaza), makes any headway with him, and soon she is getting ready to time travel. They prepare by spending time on martial arts, target practice, discussing theory of time travel. I found these scenes hilarious. Darius finds Ken intriguing and funny, then attractive, and eventually falls for him.

And this does not end how you expect - although I'm not sure what I expected. Something saccharine, perhaps? This is a fantastic rental - probably one of the best rentals I've seen in a while. Pick it up!