Reviews::Main

Director: Eric Bress J. Mackye Gruber Year: 2004 Language: English Country: America

Time travel in films can always be a bit of a risky topic, and casting an actor who is most well know for silly teen comedies and being the annoying host of a show on MTV which pulls pranks on celebrities seems like a bad idea.

Before seeing the film, my biggest preconceptions where that Ashton Kutcher was gonna be rubbish, but I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised as he plays the most serious role I've ever seen him in.

The Butterfly Effect tells the story of Evan, as a child Evan suffers from blackouts at key stages in his life, mainly when bad things are happening around him. He is recommended to keep a journal of his life to help him remember the missing parts of his memory, which he continues to do. As a student, he returns to the town he left when he was a child and speaks to an old friend about her abusive father, she subsequently kills herself. Evan discovers while reading some old journals that he can travel back to the time of the blackout and re-live it, upon doing so he changes the future and when he wakes up, he is in what seems like a perfect alternate reality. However, things soon change and he must try to change history once again to fix the new problems created.

The Butterfly Effect takes the idea that small changes in history can have devastating effects on the course of events.

Kutcher gives a reasonable performance, far removed from his usual comedy style. The story is well told and directed. The films comes to a chilling climax as Evan strives to right his life.

Overall, The Butterfly Effect is a pretty good film, with an interesting plot and a performance from Ashton Kutcher which transforms him from a bad comic actor to someone worth watching.

Dave W - 11th July, 2004 - 23:13