unusual time travel movie

Rating: 7/10 (5 March 2013)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars with Bruce Willis, Jeff Daniels, and Emily Blunt in "Looper," a 2012 film written and directed by Rian Johnson.
Gordon-Levitt plays Joe in the year 2044. He is a "looper." In order to clean up the future, loopers are sent to the past where they kill known criminals. For this, they get paid in silver bars. At the end of their run, the looper kills his older self in the future, takes the silver and enjoys 30 years of retirement.
All of this happens to Joe. He kills his older self and takes the gold bars (that's the final payoff) and has a good retirement. After some travel, he moves to China and meets a beautiful woman whom he adores, and they get married.
After 30 years, he is picked up to be killed but escapes and goes back to the past, where Young Joe recognizes him. Old Joe and Young Joe talk - Old Joe has come back to the past to find a vicious criminal who, in the future, killed Old Joe's wife. He plans on finding this person and killing him before he can do damage in the future. That way his wife will still be with him.
The great thing about "Looper" is that although the story sounds convoluted, thanks to the direction and script, it's quite easy to follow. Though I'm not an expert on this type of film, I found it fresh and unusual, and also well worth seeing.
Johnson, who has directed episodes of "Breaking Bad" and some other films, is an effective director, and we'll definitely be seeing much more of him, both in his direction and his scripts. Interesting premise, well executed.