So, I watched this movie recently, it came out a few years ago. It’s directed by Colin Trevorrow and stars Aubrey Plaza as the main role.
The movie is about a group of workers at a magazine company in Seattle. Two interns and one of the magazine’s writers find an article in the newspaper classifieds and decide to research it and write an article about it.
The classified is a wanted ad for someone to travel back in time with them. It literally says “Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 91 Ocean View, WA 99393. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.”
So the premise is pretty funny, and I have to be honest…the main reason I wanted to watch this movie was because Colin Trevorrow is directing Jurassic World, the 4th Jurassic Park film which is suppose to come out in 2015. So I kind of wanted to test him out…anyway.
As the film goes on, their personalities come out, Aubrey Plaza’s character, Darius, is a college graduate and lives at home with her widowed father. She’s very quiet, shy and awkward around others. The other intern is Arnau, also an awkward, quiet, shy guy. The actual writer for the magazine is Jeff, a middle aged man who seems to finally realize that his “player” mentality hasn’t gotten him anywhere, and needs to settle down quick.
It takes a while for the film to get up to speed, but finally we start to see some of Kenneth, the man behind the ad. I feel like his character was based off of Dwight from The Office. I wished that he had been more like Dwight though, he was kind of weird, but not enough in my opinion, I felt like there could have been a little more.
To gain Kenneth’s trust, Darius has to basically become a spy for the magazine and train with him before he’ll let her time travel with him. Kenneth has no idea that she’s associated with the other guys that are usually waiting behind bushes or in their hotel room.
Kenneth’s story slowly turns from a quirky ad to something a lot deeper and more painful from his past. Darius starts to realize that what she’s getting herself in to could be real, and starts to sympathize with him. So it starts to get pretty interesting, but at the same time you get the feeling that Darius is starting to form a crush on him, which is super weird because she’s supposed to be like early-twenties, and he’s easily 35 or 40.
I had a feeling that it could get weird, because a lot of times indie films get a little strange with love triangles and relationships, in my opinion at least.
But then there’s a plot twist, DUN DUN DUN, when a couple of FBI agents confront Darius and ask her about Kenneth. They tell her that he’s been wanted for trespass and stealing dangerous materials from the government. Darius decides to confront Kenneth and they start fighting, but right then Jeff and Arnau barge in and Kenneth freaks out and runs away. They chase after him through the woods and find him at a lake with his time machine boat invention.
Everyone stops and stares as they realize that he’s actually built something.
Kenneth invites Darius on to the boat to go back through time, and she hesitantly walks on to the boat, and as the engines and spinning contraptions start to move and make noise, the boat lights up and disappears, just as Darius and Kenneth kiss, and just like that, the waters ripple with a rush of wind.
So, I thought the movie was alright, I was expecting a little more I guess, I had read good things about it. I thought they could have made Kenneth’s character a little better, and Aubrey Plaza’s acting throughout was pretty drab and 1 dimensional. But I thought the idea was really funny.
So overall I’ll give it a 4 out of 5, and I really hope Trevorrow can deliver a high-action, dinosaur rampant, plot-driven Jurassic World next summer. I just hope it turns out to be better than the 4th Indiana Jones, please don’t use aliens!!!!
The Qualmist 