Why would you go back in time? To get rich? For fun? Because you want a second chance? Because you dream of fixing a mistake? Because you’re unhappy with who you grew up to be?

Good time travel movies are not about time travel, just like good westerns are not about guns and horses, and good heist films don’t focus exclusively on the money or the mechanics of breaking in. Safety not guaranteed is ostensibly a time-travel comedy, but in its cleverness, warmth and sincerity, it resembles not as much Hot tub time machine, as it does K-PAX and Lars and the real girl.

I loved both of those movies, and I loved this one too. I’ve always been drawn to stories of scientists – fiction and non-fiction alike – toiling away at their crazy inventions in their lone laboratories, misunderstood if not entirely forgotten by the rest of the world. It barely mattered whether they were crazy or not, or whether their inventions made any sense; I envied them the utter conviction and faith they had in the little universes they created and held onto.

This feeling resurfaced as I was watching the movie, and I realized that perhaps time travel here is just a metaphor; perhaps each one of us has a dream, a belief, a little unique personal tautology that we’d love to tell to someone, anyone – but, out of fear of embarrassment or rejection, we probably never will. This brilliant movie is about what could happen if you did.