The Butterfly Effect, a shattering if uneven drama about guilt, regret and longing, is a shocker because of its star, Ashton Kutcher.
No how and no way did I ever think that this Punk'd-out clown would or could make a film that would rise out of the primordial muck.
His big screen credits include Reindeer Games; Dude, Where's My Car?; Just Married; My Boss's Daughter; and a silly support role in Cheaper By The Dozen. These are hardly the dreams that dramatic success is made of. Besides being known as an on-screen doofus, Kutcher's biggest claim to fame is dating a celebrity cougar, Demi Moore.
But The Butterfly Effect is an ambitious, thoughtful and challenging film with layers of serious ideas. It purports to be inspired by the chaos theory. Forget that. It has little to do with chaos, other than its ability to inspire chaos in audiences drawn to it only because of Kutcher's comedy roles.
What is strong about Butterfly is its daring exploration of the effect that trauma can have on short-term memory loss. Kutcher's character -- who is also seen in flashbacks to two different points in his childhood, with child actors effectively playing the role -- is in desperate straits as the film opens. His life is in danger.
Time-fractured, layered flashbacks take us into the reasons for this.
They include a childhood tragedy and a probable case of sexual abuse (with Eric Stoltz in the creepiest role of his career) and a complicated relationship with three friends. Kutcher suffers blackouts.
It overlaps some of the plot points in Memento, but The Butterfly Effect, written and directed by the promising team of Eric Bless and J. Mackye Gruber, has a unique, even surreal, take on the subject.
This film is a true original.
In their story, Kutcher learns how to go back into his childhood through his dreams. There he conjures up the missing, suppressed moments and makes different decisions.
Each time when he wakes up as an adult, his reality has suddenly changed. But, each time, there is a terrible price to pay for changing history. The lesson of the film is that no one can play God, not even in his own life. There are too many variables. Make the right choices the first time.
Kutcher's performance is not exactly Oscar-worthy, but he manages to do a decent job of changing his personality each time he wakes up to a new reality. Compared with Amy Smart -- the adult version of the girl Kutcher has loved since childhood -- Kutcher is still on the learning curve. She is the real deal, going from silly sorority girl in one sequence to bitter junkie prostitute in another.
In the end, the film also takes a bittersweet tack, another surprise for an Ashton Kutcher film. The sappy Hollywood finish would have ruined the effect.
(This film is rated 14-A)
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