One of the more original movies this year!

Rating: 10/10 (13 October 2012)

Having seen a lot of sci-fi movies (big fan of the genre), I went to this movie expecting a decent action thriller at the very least. I was pleasantly surprised - what i got was a movie with an original and very intelligent script, good performances, some great action, and a thought-provoking ending.
Looper is set some years in the future when time travel and telekinesis are common, with the former being outlawed, and the latter being viewed as more of a party trick. The mob (yes the future has a Mob!) use time travel as a very ingenious way of getting rid of people. They send the victim back to a pre-specified time, blind-folded with silver bars strapped to his back. When the victim appears, there's a "looper" waiting to kill him off and take the silver as payment. At some point in time, the looper is made to kill off his "older self" thus closing the loop. Sounds complicated? The whole concept of time travel is complicated - yet the movie manages to explain everything very clearly with no loose ends and not a single plot hole.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a looper Joe, going through his life stashing away a bit of his silver bar payment, doing drugs, and in general, just waiting for when he has to close his loop. When it does happen however, he hesitates, and his older self (played by an older, grayer Bruce Willis) makes an escape. Joe has already seen what happens when a loop is not closed - a friend of his is killed off horribly for the same mistake.
The rest of the movie focuses on both the Joes fighting to stay alive and also trying to find the younger self of the Rainmaker, a feared crime lord of the future who ordered the assassination of older Joe. The logic is that if the Rainmaker's younger self is eliminated, he is removed in the future as well. Of course, killing a child is always difficult, and this dilemma is what provides the movie with its emotional core.
The child playing the younger self of the Rainmaker is a talent to watch out for, switching between cuteness and menace in a heartbeat. Jeff Daniels plays the crime lord sent back from the future to ensure discipline among the loopers, while Emily Blunt excels as the single mom trying to raise a telekinetic child on the right path.
The movie of course belongs to Gordon-Levitt and Willis, both fine accomplished actors who deliver all that is expected and more. Credit is also due to the script - simple, elegant, yet intelligent to make the audience focus.