| Posted by: moviemuffin at January 26, 2004, 1:05 am | | Topic: Reviews: The Butterfly Effect Forum: JoBlo | | The Butterfly Effect İreel-reviews.net Rated R Running time 113 minutes Directed by Eric Bress and J Mackye Gruber Starring: Ashton Kucher, Amy Smart, Elden Henson, William Lee Scott, Kevin Schmidt, John Patrick Amedori, Logan Lerman, Irene Gorovaia, Jesse James, Sarah Widdows, Kevin Schmidt, Ethan Suplee, Eric Stolz The Butterfly Effect opens with a quote referencing the theory of the mythic quantum butterfly: that something as subtle and delicate as the movement of a butterfly's wing can alter the shape of the universe. The quantum butterfly is a fascinating symbol, and the theories associated with it fascinating theories. It's unfortunate that not a single soul associated with this movie understands either of these. As is so often my mantra: the performances weren't the problem; the script was. In The Butterfly Effect Ashton Kucher plays a young man plagued by blackouts. His father, who is absent for most of his life, is institutionalized after becoming violent and unstable as the blackouts, and his control during them, progress. Young Evan suffers a traumatic childhood, yet matures into an academically brilliant university student who studies (surprise) memory. These studies involve caterpillars (and, presumably, butterflies). That's all we know about those mysterious academics. We get neither theory nor formula. Evan discovers, apparently without any real methodology other than happenstance, that if he re-reads his childhood journals and squints he can make the world around him wiggle in a cinematically interesting way, followed by a trip back in time to the moment he's reading about. Interesting premise, but we never get anything remotely resembling an explanation of how it works. A reference to the mythic Quantum Butterfly promised something pretty complex, but no follow-up on the quantum theory that ultimately has absolutely nothing to do with the movie ever comes to the fore. Okey dokey. This might... I stress, MIGHT... be forgiven as a typical Hollywood oversight if the plot at least respected reason on some tiny, basic level. But none of the eventualities that play out following Evan's numerous interventions make sense. People do NOT end up in mental institutions for life over the occurances described. Wealthy young frat boys do NOT go to MAXIMUM SECURITY prisons while waiting for an appeal in a SELF DEFENSE case. Explosives are NOT generally lying around even the most screwed up of households. A child who is clearly psychotic and sociopathic does NOT become an instant born-again saint because of one incident, no matter how stunning the event. Pedophiles do NOT completely cease behavior toward ONLY ONE of their children following a speech by another child. Psychology just doesn't work that way. It takes many incidents and significant biological and chemical aspects to create the characters as they are written. The initial premise was interesting (although it has been done to death). The performances were fine (although they accomplished nothing new and were not in any way particularly impressive). The script, as usual, was a piece of steamy fly-ridden dog crap. But, then, the makers of this movie are counting on a gullible audience. They trust that making reference to quantum butterflies right at the opening credits is enough to make most of its paying viewers say "duuuuude" without really pondering much further. They certainly don't expect any of them to have a background in quantum physics or symbology. No, this is a film served up without much backbone to an audience that asks very little. If you loved Gothika, you'll love this. If you've read Thief of Time, seen Sliding Doors and drooled, pored over copies of The Elegant Algorithm, or Decoherence, or read an article by David Poulin... skip it. |
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