To be, or not to be, that is the question

Rating: 8/10 (10 October 2012)

"Looper" is a new action Sci-Fi getting overwhelmingly positive reviews and comments and even named movie of the year by some, which is pretty unusual for a movie of that genre. Written and directed by Rian Johnson, it tells of a world where time-travel was invented and immediately prohibited but is still used by criminal organisations. When they need to get rid of someone they send him 30 years in the past when an assassin kills him. Those assassins are called loopers and we follow the story of one of them, a guy called Joe. Joe is the youngest looper but he does his job without mistake. That is, until he has to kill his older self. You see, in the future they started hunting old loopers and sending them back to their younger selves with a big payment. That is called "closing the loop" and essentially means early retirement. So Joe finds himself closing his loop but things go amiss and older Joe escapes. The criminal organization led by a man from the future named Abe immediately starts searching for Joe, Joe searches for his older self, and older Joe searches for the Rainmaker, a mysterious figure who rules by iron fist in the future and gave away an order to kill all loopers, but is just a little child in 2042.
The movie is deemed as very original and is applauded for it, and while parts of the script have a refreshing originality, the concept of time-travel and the ideas of facing your older/younger self and changing the future by intervening in the past are nothing new. Some of them (and some other as well) are explored in last year's another critical favourite, "Source Code" (be sure to see it if you haven't already) which came to my mind while watching "Looper". Both are uncommonly complex and smart Sci-Fi movies and they share some themes, but they have a crucial difference. While "Source Code" is a Sci-Fi only because of its unusual idea of inserting thoughts and personality of one person into the body of another (who is by the way in past, so time-travel plays a role here too), "Looper" is a true genre movie. Johnson creates a believable futuristic world enriched with small details like hovering bikes, telekinesis and (inevitably) a new drug consumed as eye-drops and makes us want to see more of it. It's really a shame we don't but the movie aims for much more and there has to be room for everything.
The main concern of "Looper" are moral and philosophical issues. It asks questions like: "Can killing innocents be justified by what could happen in the future?", "What are we willing/allowed to do to save ourselves?", "Is our future predetermined?", "Can we change it?", "What is our life worth?", and many more. And it's a great achievement that it succeeds in making those questions relevant while simultaneously offering a great dose of action, somewhat clichéd love story and a whole lot of time-travel issues. Those issues are being discussed in detail all over the Internet but, while entertaining and interesting as a conversation theme, shouldn't be put in the foreground because they easily let you forget about all aforementioned great things in this movie.
The movie has a very well written screenplay and benefits from an inspired direction, which wouldn't be enough had it not a great cast too. Bruce Willis, and especially Joseph Gordon-Levitt did a great job portraying the same character. Gordon-Levitt wears prosthetics which help him look like young Willis (although he looks kind of awkward occasionally) but most of the job is done by him. The facial expressions, gestures and tone of voice are first-rate and young actor once again shows his huge range. There are some less captivating performances like those of Emily Blunt and Paul Dano, but there are also memorable, although short, appearances by, always great, Jeff Daniels and Garret Dillahunt, which give the movie even more appeal. Talking about appeal, Steve Yedlin's cinematography is fantastic. The movie is full of beautiful wide shots and striking close-ups and really demands seeing in a movie theater for full effect. An important contribution to the overall atmosphere is one of the best Sci-Fi soundtracks in years, done by Nathan Johnson, Rian's cousin and frequent collaborator (and partner in folk duo "The Preserves", but that's some other story). It makes a great job emphasizing all the emotional moments and injects additional suspense in the action sequences.
So I've written a lot and said only a small part of what's on my mind. That's the sign I should stop or else I'll never finish. "Looper" is above all else food for thought, and as that it deserves all the attention it got. Add to that its genre basis and you'll realize what we have here is a very likely future cult movie to be talked about for the years to come. Don't know about you, but I will definitely loop back to the beginning of it the first chance I get.
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