Safety Not Guaranteed is a slightly strange film; just like Chronicle, another film set in Washington, it's not entirely obvious what it is; is it a comedy, a romance, a gloomy reflection on regretting the passage of time, a coming-of-age story? It delivers enough twists to keep you confused, without you feeling you're constantly having the rug yanked out from underneath you.
The ending isn't exactly what I expected, and there are a few reversals as the conclusion arrives, but the ending is a clean resolution that pulls the different threads together. The acting is a little variable; some of the supporting characters are a little flat, and the subplot with the second intern could be fleshed out more, but the leads are wonderfully naturalistic.
I kept wondering when the Enormous Special Effects would appear, but it's placid, lo-fi, chugging along in a very restful way from start to finish. There's a semi-deus ex machina in the part of the malevolent magazine editrix, and there are some chickens being fed corn, drunken behaviour at a high school football match, and a man crying as he drives a go kart round a track. By the end, it's almost Primer with a happy ending. Who could find fault with that?
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