Andrew McMurtryREVIEW: The Butterfly Effect (2004)
January 18th 2009 13:29
“The Butterfly Effect” is a very simple film. Well in terms of story at least. The subject matter of time-travel and of the choices we make defining how our lives, as well as the lives of those whom we impact, end up is pretty heavy. But it works pretty well. It’s a decent film which has been critically slammed, mostly, I assume, because of Ashton Kutcher being the lead. It’s mostly because the script is fairly weak but it is a decent movie. The story holds up and the acting is passable.
Ashton Kutcher stars as shaggy-haired psychology student Evan Treborn who blacks out through all of the most traumatic parts of his childhood. Throughout his childhood he represses memories through his black outs including nearly being strangled to death by his insane father as an 8-year-old, being forced into child porn by Kayleigh (eventually played by Amy Smart) and Tommy’s (William Lee Scott) abusive father (Eric Stoltz), watching a mother and child being killed in a prank gone wrong, and watching Tommy kill his dog by lighting him on fire. As he writes down what he remembers in journals, these become portals to the past where he can travel back and change the past with his knowledge of the future. As he does this, he affects all the lives of those around him, usually those who he loves most. Kayleigh, Tommy, his childhood friend Lenny (Elden Henson) and his mother are all affected in different ways every time. When Evan alters his actions even just a little bit, the repercussions are huge for the future. Therefore the title The Butterfly Effect, based on the theory of the same name which states ‘a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the world will cause cyclones on the other’. It really makes you think about how every little action, every little choice we’ve made in our lives will affect our future.
The characterisation of this film was well done. Kayleigh’s character had different personalities every time Evan went back to try and fix something from the past, ranging from happy-go-lucky college student to scarred drug addled prostitute to depressed truck stop waitress. As did Tommy and Lenny. But it was well thought out that in the end, it all comes back to the problem of the one constant in all of the scenarios as the solution to everyone problems. The film's writing and directing team, Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber, have done a decent story with the story. It’s riveting enough and strong enough to hold the audience and the ambience of the soundtrack is also good. The actual shooting of the story is good and just allows the action to happen without any fancy camera techniques. The image of the child porn and the mother with her baby about to be blown apart is pretty full on, especially when you know that something is going to happen.
“The Butterfly Effect” isn’t as bad as it has been made out as in most of the movie reviews. I think most of that comes from the fact that Ashton Kutcher is the star. It’s pretty well thought out in the story department. It probably falls down a bit in the script area but it is really easy to follow. If you want a movie where you don’t have to think too hard through yet has a reasonably heavy storyline, this will be a good movie for you. The fact that the story has been made simple is probably the reason that the film has been slammed. I like it. It’s a good easy to follow story. It’s very similar to “Donnie Darko” in its message but it’s still rather good. I’d give it 3 out of 5 stars.
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