The Butterfly Effect

[Jakanden]

The Butterfly Effect Review

By Jay Smith

Ever wonder what would happen if you could go back in the past and change certain events of your life? Would you make things better? Perhaps make them worse? These are a few of the questions that arise during The Butterfly Effect.

Inspired by a Ray Bradbury short story of the same name, The Butterfly Effect is the story of Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher of That 70?s Show) and his life. As a child, Evan begins experiencing short blackouts where he has no recollection of the events that take place during them. To help him attempt to overcome these blackouts, Evan begins keeping a Journal of everything that happens to him.

As an adult, Evan accidentally discovers a way of going back in time through those journals and visiting the times of his life when he blacked out. In doing so, he changes the lives of him and his friends Kayleigh (Amy Smart of Road Trip), Lenny (Elden Henson of Idle Hands) and Tommy (William Lee Scott of Identity).

Time Travel in movies is nothing new, however this movie serves it up with an enjoyable twist (much like Frequency did). While Evan can visit the periods of time in his life where he blacked out, he still has the memories of what it was like originally before he went back. This places him (and the audience) in awkward situations where everyone around him has memories of the current time line but Evan.

Ashton Kutcher does a fairly good job in Butterfly. A vast departure from his normal comedic roles, Ashton manages to keep up with the pace of the movie and is very convincing as Evan. There are a few moments where he doesn?t do so well but considering this is his first real dramatic role and he does so well overall, they can be forgiven. The supporting cast is great as well and it is good to see actors Ethan Suplee and Eric Stoltz even if only for a short while.

Despite overall critic disapproval, The Butterfly Effect is a wonderful film. It is dark, violent and doesn?t try to dumb itself down. At the end of the movie it will not hand you all the answers on a silver plate, and you will be required to think to understand it. It ties itself up nicely though and many things that did not make sense at first will make sense after some thought. Do not go in expecting a typical Hollywood ending either. The ending is in tune with the darkness of the movie and may not please everyone.

I for one will be eagerly awaiting the DVD release to watch it again to dissect the story as it is a movie that will require multiple viewings to completely understand (think Donnie Darko). I also wish see the original ending which was removed because it was considered too dark. If you enjoyed movies like Identity, and Donnie Darko, give The Butterfly Effect a try, you won?t be disappointed.

3.5 out of 4

[Julius]

I agree this was a very "edge of your seat" movie. I was kept entertained through each of the "parallel universes" he visted. :thumbup:

[bball4all]

yeah....i thought this was a great movie too