Gritty drama that hinges on Time Travel

Rating: 8/10 (14 December 2014)

Time Travel Dramas have one problem when it comes to movies...How to deal with the Logic of Temporal Interference while avoiding Paradox or getting lost in a recursive cause/effect argument.
This is not really a Sci-Fi Time Travel EFX movie: There's No scenes of Time Travel and people flying back and forth thru a temporal Hyperspace. There's No zinging special EFX Time machine with lights and glowing hoops.
Instead, this is a story about a small-minded, cold-hearted Thug who runs into his Older Self. The Time Travel technology is only a means for him to make money killing people. Except now he's supposed to Kill his future self.
What got me was the interplay between the Older Self (Willis) and the Younger self (Gordon Levit). Can the mean-spirited Thug do the only thing that needs to be done? Some reviewers have decried the lack of 'chemistry' between the two. I would counter that there isn't any chemistry, because there can't be any. Joe is NOT a complicated person. He's not a Deep person. He's Not a Likable person.
Joe is a Thug. He's not a Poet. He's Not a Lover. He's not an Intellectual caught in a bad circumstance. Joe is just a street punk killer.
But because of his choice, circumstances will present him with Judgement. Looper is about a fundamental question of Morality & Selfishness that MUST be Answered. And although Joe is just a punk killer...he's STILL a Human Being. And Human Beings who have souls inevitably have to Choose for The Better or for The Worse.
I found The Answer to this Question in the End was very moving.
And the Little Kid? He was INCREDIBLE! The thought of a little Boy being able to emote and act like that is just...SPOOKY to the nth degree.