From the outset, this movie seems promising. The
starting scene is one of the best I’ve seen for a while, providing enough punch
to pull you in the story.
While the overall movie explores the concept of time traveling, it actually
focuses more on the relationship between the present Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his own
future self (Bruce Willis) and it is sufficient to say that there is enough chemistry
between both of them, with the future Joe having ‘outgrown’ the present Joe so
much that it seems that it reflects the same reality that being a man and being
a boy are like complete different existences; thus making the story more
relatable to us. However, the concept of time traveling is simplified to such
an extent that even The Butterfly Effect
explores the concept better. I’m going
to digress a little here, but the tagline of The Butterfly Effect – change one
thing, change everything seems to be not applicable in this movie, although it
is to this author’s humble opinion that it should.
Nonetheless, the strong performance by the 2 main actors, coupled with the
performance of Cid (Pierce Gagnon)
made the movie worthwhile. While the
movie starts to explore a theme similar to that of the movie Chronicle (wouldn’t reveal too much
here) , I would say the
cinematography and even the overall feeling of the scenes is very much on par
and resembles Chronicle. So yeap, if you liked Chronicle, I think there is a
high probability that you would enjoy the second half of this movie.
Although the plot should be praised for infusing originality (afterall, the
theme of time traveling has been used and reused for ages, but couple it with
another theme as pointed out above, and you will get something original) , its
ending is foreseeable, thus taking off a little taste away from the movie. But,
really, that doesn’t mean you should give this movie a pass, for the overall
direction of the movie is clear and interesting; and while the ending is
predictable, that doesn’t mean you won’t feel the impact of the ending.
My verdict? Go watch it already.
Being
a psychological thriller, this movie reminds me a lot of Memento, where the
main character suffers from temporal memory loss, though the memory loss in
this movie seems to be specifically
‘designed’ to create nasty surprises to the viewers.. a flash and we are seeing
something shocking, yet often times we won’t get the whole picture(a break in
the causal link). We are brought through the events of the life of Evan (Ashton
Kutcher) when he was a kid, adolescent and subsequently a young adult, with his
days as being a kid and adolescence haunting in the sense of the nature of the
events themselves and also the intention of the production team to create some shock
value.
By leaving gaps in some major events in the early half of the movie(as part of
Evan’s temporal memory loss), the movie essentially forces you to continue to
watch the movie as you would know the gaps would be filled.. just how? And to
discover the main character’s ability to travel back to the past to revisit the
gaps in his memory and subsequently learning that he could inhibit his past
self to change his past to affect his future… was somewhat of a lame discovery
(simply because it lacks originality) ,but I digress.
Does the movie lives up to its tagline? I would say yes. We would see the
change of fate of the main characters of the movie with just some tweak in Evan’s
choice of actions as he inhibits his younger self and changed the way he
responded to the events. What’s really fascinating about the movie is that the
changes in the main characters at the young adult stage (where Evan would
eventually return to after inhibiting his past self) seems believable and
logical, and it is disturbing that how significant the changes in the main characters
could be after Evan performed his little trick (although some changes were
unintended and yet unavoidable simply because our fates were always entwined together).
Of escaping death and 180 degree changes in personalities, outlooks and
circumstances in life; change one thing, change everything.
There are also alternate endings for this movie ( although I’ve only learnt
about this after completing the movie). I would urge you to watch the director’s
cut of this movie, simply because it really hit a note at the end of the movie ..
it would make you think about the timeless question of “what if”..what if you
have done or haven’t done something in the past? Will you still be who you are today?.. and begin to
realize that we, no matter how insignificant we think we are, have powers over
matters we decide, which would subsequently impact our own future and the
future of others close to us in unimaginable ways.
And for a movie to make a lazy bum like me to contemplate more about life, I
would say, give this movie a go.
