Mar 29, 2008 12:52 PM
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When I watched "Memento", I thought it was the only movie that satisfied all my psychological aspirations. I realized the mistake with "Butterfly Effect". Though it couldn't stand head and shoulders with the former in terms of intelligence, it is still worth to be mentioned along with it.
At the onset, it appears to be a cheap teen-thriller with a cast that is typical for that genre, however as time moves, we realize that this is one serious stuff. Evan (Ashton Kutcher) from a family of lunatic males, experiences black-outs at stressful moments from his boyhood. At his adolescence, he discovers that by reading through his journals, he could go back in time and experience the black-outs and thereby understand himself. Eventually, he learns to redo the black-outs to straighten out his mistakes. But, things are not so simple as his every attempt to change the history leads to further complexities.
Its a mind-boggling script that plays with the cause and effect situations. Its quite common for us to think what would have happened if we had reacted or acted differently in important situations of our lives. We might even think of changing them to iron out our mistakes. But are we sure that things would become better by redoing our past? Or would it get lot worse than now?
In my favorite book, "Transforming the Mind" by Peter Shepherd, he writes that by replaying (in our mind) our past at will, we would be able to control our present and thereby the future. I could see a striking reflection of this theory in "Butterfly Effect". You need not necessarily change the past, but by replaying the incidents and understanding it in full conciousness we would be able to change our present and future life.
"Butterfly Effect" has a great entertaining value and keeps us toying with flurry of thoughts. As Evan's attempts to change the events of his past in reverse chronology, he is forced to go back to the previous black-out to make up for the failure only to get failed more miserably again. There seems to be a lot of alternate endings for this movie, but I liked the one which deals with his birth.
Casting is a letdown. Ashton as Evan is not adequate enough to support the script but a powerful script doesn't require a great performer. Except for him, every other cast member has to display a range of multiple personalities as Evan travels through the time, but they too just fill in with just enough performance. However, Amy Smart as Evan's girlfriend Kayleigh shows some signs of promise. She looks different in each of her personalities.
I was annoyed that no other character is ready to speak to Evan and explain what happened during his black-outs. This seems to be a convoluted need for Evan to time travel by way of his journals. Likewise is the Stigmata sequences. How could these scars vanish as Evan comes back to real time while a similar cigarette scar from another timeline still remains?
But, these questions comes out only after the end-credits as the screenplay is tight enough to disallow viewers to think anything beyond what is in the screen. There is a chance of getting lost when Evan starts his time travel. But, as we get used to it, things become clear. "Buttefly Effect" requires multiple viewings to intake everything that is displayed. Though its a movie of regrets, we won't necessarily regret watching it.
