Then I saw it..

Rating: 9/10 (14 December 2012)

".. I saw a mom who would die for her son, a man who would kill for his wife, a boy, angry and alone, laid out in front of him the bad path. I saw it and the path was a circle, round and round"
I wanted to see "Looper" (2012) written/directed by Rian Johnson as soon as I read the first reviews about it. It intrigued me for several reasons. The critics and viewers praised it. The first two Johnson's films were interesting and original and I wanted to see his new work. I am a fan of the time travel genre. Where else does the hero sit at a table in a roadside diner facing himself, either thirty years older, or thirty years younger - depending on which side he is sitting? Or where else rather clichéd phrase "he was in a deadly conflict with himself" means just that? And more. What does a man feel at gun point, with himself holding the gun, either thirty years older, or thirty years younger?
Another reason for me was Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the main character Joe, the looper. He is a convincing versatile young actor, one of the most interesting of his generation. For Rian Johnson, Gordon-Levitt is kind of mascot. Johnson made all three movies with him, and Joseph was a leading man in two. An interesting feature of Gordon-Levitt's role (Joe "closes the loops of time" working as an assassin for the Mafia) is how he based Joe on young Bruce Willis. He plays young Willis' on- screen tough guy persona that we so get used to identify with and root for, and he does it very good. Bruce Willis also plays an important role of aged Joe. If you guessed that Willis would be saving the world that got into a serious trouble you may be right. This is what Willis does in the movie well: saves lost children, city, country, planet, and the universe. In "Looper" Willis plays retired hit man, whom his crime bosses sent with a bag on his head from the future, 2074 to the past 2044, to get rid of him with no trace. What happens to him when he arrives to the past, who meets him, how will he try to change the past to save the future - it's all in the loop, tied by Rian Johnson.
By Johnson's words, despite the fact that "Looper" was a time travel film, he was more interested in creating the human characters, in choices they make in a situation that was caused by travel from future to past. This film is about making difficult choice, the possibility of one person to change the course of history, and how far he'd go for it. Dedicated to the paradox of time, "Looper" mixes futuristic science fiction and dark noir known for biting dialogue and off-screen sharp voice in Humphrey Bogart's movies style. Johnson adds the stories of love, not the least the love between a child and his mother. As befits a film about the possibility of time travel, the focus centers on whether it is possible, knowing exactly how the future will turn, to change something fundamentally important in the past, to correct it, and how this change will affect the lives of everyone involved. It would seem that nothing new, original and exciting can come out of the time travel genre after Terminator 1 and 2, 12 Monkeys, The Butterfly Effect, and their granddaddy, Le Jetee that started them all? But Johnson did it and even without a big budget, not trying to make a future in his film looking like a futuristic super modern giant metropolis. On the contrary, not so far removed future of 2044 looks more like the abandoned and gloomy suburbs of big city, shaken to its foundations by deep economic crisis, where the power is already in the hands of large criminal groups that control the time travel and use it to effectively get rid of the enemies sent from the future.
Using the elements of the time travel genre, Looper goes beyond the borders. It asked interesting questions, and gave different answers. Rian Johnson, writer/ director, does not mind to break the rules of genres in his films. His films are more of stylizations, pastiches of genres he likes and interested in. The elements of genres are the building blocks, the bricks for him which he makes his films from. No wonder, his first film was called "Brick" (2005).
To create a smart, interesting, original stylization, a game of mind - is not an easy task, and Johnson has the gift for it. His first two films, "Brick" and "The Brothers Bloom", were both intelligent, curious, but, rather, cerebral variations of films and books that Johnson likes. "Looper", his third, is also clever and gripping but what makes it the best of three, it's got heart in the right place. "Looper" affected me on a deep emotional level. "Looper", in my opinion is one of the best independent American movies of 2012. Being an independent filmmaker, Johnson is able to assert his creative ideas, but without super-budget. But I am glad that "Looper" did not look flashy and glamorous. It is more than just an eye-candy. It has a plot, intrigue, and the loop that it will close in a truly original, searing manner. While closing this loop, the film will answer the most important question - can you destroy the source of evil, which will bring tragedy and death to the future, if you look at it right now, this minute and "you see it. You see a mom who would die for her son, a man who would kill for his wife, a boy, angry & alone, laid out in front of him the bad path. You see it and the path is a circle, round and round..." Would you change it?