rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2004
Directed by Eric Bress & J. Mackye Gruber; produced by Chris Bender, A.J. Dix, Anthony Rhulen, J.C. Spink; written by J. Mackye Gruber, Eric Bress
Starring Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Melora Walters, Elden Henson, William Lee Scott, Cameron Bright, Eric Stolz, Ethan Suplee
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
If you are able to put too much reason aside, 'The Butterfly Effect' is a
pretty good thriller. It starts with an idea, a great one, exploits that
idea over and over again, almost up to a point we stop caring. It finishes
on the right moment, although by realizing that I think it has played its
trick too many times. The film starts with a statement about the chaos
theory: one little butterfly flapping its wings can cause disastrous weather
on the other end of the world. Okay. This idea is changed to a human being
who can go back in time, change one little thing there, return to present
day, and find out that everything around him has changed. Every single time
he pulls his trick some of his loved once get hurt in the future.
The film starts with a boy named Evan and his friends Lenny, Kayleigh and
her brother Tommy. We see some moments from their youth, all there to return
when Evan goes back in time. One of them shows the father (Eric Stolz) of
Kayleigh and Tommy, making an illegal film (you know the kind) with Evan and
Kayleigh. It also shows how Evan can't remember how he is suddenly naked in
the basement; from time to time he has blackouts. Another moment shows the
four kids as young teenagers doing something very stupid with dynamite and a
mailbox. Evan has a blackout again, so, like Evan, we do not learn what
happens there exactly. What we do see is how Tommy turns into a sadistic
little kid, of course important for the story. These parts of the film are
very good. They provide mysteries around Evan's blackouts and certain things
that could have happened. That the child actors here give great
performances, especially Jesse James who plays the evil Tommy, is something
that adds to the quality of these scenes as well.
We move to Evan as a young adult, now played by Ashton Kutcher in an
effective performance. He has not seen his old friends for a long time.
Kayleigh moved, he promised to come look for her but never did. One day he
reads one of his old diaries. He was told to keep a diary to fight the
blackouts. He is surprised when he reads something directly out of a
blackout and before he knows it he is back there, as a child, and re-lives
an event from one of his blackouts. He discovers that he can re-live them
the way he wants it. For example, he tells the father of Kayleigh and Tommy
not to touch his daughter ever again. Problem solved, he thinks. But in
present day he wakes up with Kayleigh as his girlfriend, now played by Amy
Smart, and a Tommy who has been abused by his father, instead of Kayleigh,
and is now even more twisted than he ever was. To solve this problem he does
his little trick again. A new problem arrives.
Like I said, the idea is good, but you really should not think too much. One
of the obvious flaws is the contradiction between the opening line about the
chaos theory and the small events in the film. If one little butterfly can
turn the world around due terrible weather, a real change in history should
effect the world a lot more. Here it seems the changes made only effect a
couple of people: Evan, Kayleigh, Tommy (William Lee Scott as an adult),
Lenny (Elden Henson) and apparently Evan's mother. This shows, although it
is a given, that Evan's ability to go back in time is a plot device to
provide him with new problems; 'The Butterfly Effect' is not really about
his condition and his time traveling but about the new little situations he
finds himself in. Still, I have to say I liked this film. I was impressed
with the idea and the first couple of times it uses that idea. I was
impressed by the first parts of the film where the children are so
important. I was impressed by how effective Kutcher was. I was impressed how
I was able to put reason aside and just enjoy the film. It goes on a little
too long, but the final moments, however clichéd they may be, are not to be
missed.