Take one part Groundhog Day, mix with 2 partsIt’s A Wonderful Life and add equal dashes ofSe7en and 12 Monkeys and you start to get a feel forThe Butterfly Effect, New Line’s new Psycho/Sci-FiThriller starring everybody’s favorite punk-er, AshtonKutcher.
I have to admit my expectation were somewhat low going into thefilm. Between mugging for the audience on”Punk’d” and mugging for the audience on”That 70’s Show” (and I don’t even knowwhat he was doing on Dude, Where’s My Car), combinedwith a healthy dose of overexposure stemming for his Demi MooreOedipal Syndrome, and the prospect of going to a movie featuringhim as a lead fills me with about as much glee as Mad Cow Disease.But hey, it’s a free movie and coke. What is a collegereviewer going to do — say no?
Kutcher plays Evan Treborn — a kid with some problems. Hesuffers from memory backouts, which would be okay if it happenedwhen he was playing Playstation 2, but when it happens as yourfriend’s dad is setting up a video camera and telling you totake your shirt off, you’d have to curse your sense oftiming.
Years later, as a talented college student, Evan (now played byAshton Kutcher), is very interested in the concept of memory.He’s also celebrating seven years sinse those upsettingincidents.
But when he starts to read back through his boyhood journals,strange things begin to happen around him. He realizes he canreturn to those blackout moments and change past events.
Behind all of this, Evan’s crazy father has the samemisfortune, and while locked away in a psycho house, he claims tohave created a way to go back in time and make bad thingsbetter.
Before long we see that Evan has (surprise!) inherited the exactsame skill. As Evan tries to make small changes to try and correctpast horrors, he realizes things don’t turn out as heplanned.
Which is probably more story than you need to know about thestory, but if you’ve seen the trailer, it’s all oldnews.
If you’re still muttering “I don’t care if youenjoyed it, there’s no way I’m paying to see Kutcher.Forget about it, not going to happen,” I can understand that.But you’ve got to understand — this is a decent film.Surprisingly good, in fact. Good enough for me to urge people tosee.
Sure, it has it’s problems. The dialogue is far fromsparkling, which Kutcher can be blamed for fluffing a line ortwo.
But the cast is uniformly top rate, with just a few false noteshere and there. Kutcher isn’t always convincing as the giftedkid with serious problems, but his presence and sense of humorabout the role tend to be enough to help him slide through some ofthe more sticky moments.
The biggest transformations came from Amy Smart, who playsKayleigh during her young adulthood. Evan’s screwing with thepast seems to affect her most of all, and the ways in which hercharacter is manifested are quite convincing.
The Butterfly Effect has its serious flaws, butthey’re mostly ameliorated by the narrative deliveries.
Not a bad outing for a January action flick. A week later,I’m still thinking about it on two different levels —implications of the provocative concepts and ideas that the movieunleashes, and how many different ways I could have made the moviebetter.
Still. It’s a flick that stuck with me, so I’llrecommend it.
