Excellent

Rating: 9/10 (11 October 2012)

A looper is a killer for hire. 30 years in the future, time travel will be possible. Future mobsters, to get rid of someone will ship him to the past where a looper waits, shoots the person and disposes of the body.
One such looper is Joe. He's young but acts as if he's old and very experienced. He practices French, steals money from his bosses, is addicted to a drug called hope and has a relationship with a prostitute. Suddenly a new bad mobster in the future known as "the rainmaker" decides to "close all the loops." That's when a looper from the future is sent to the present to be killed by their younger self. This is happening to all his colleagues. And eventually to Joe as well, but Joe fails to kill his future self and now there are two Joes out there. And that's when things get interesting. First in mostly fast-forward we learn what happens to Joe in the future. He follows his boss's advice and goes to China where he meets a woman who makes him very happy. Suddenly loopers show up, kill the woman, and send him to the past to be killed.
Then we go back to the story of the two Joes. Future Joe has some information on the rainmaker and figures he can put and end to the closing of the loops by killing the rainmaker as a toddler. Young Joe is not interested in that project. He wants to get rid of old Joe.
Old Joe has the addresses of three possible rainmaker children and has to eliminate them all. Young Joe knows one of the addresses and waits there. It's a farm were the mom is very overprotective of the boy. Joe and the mom will get closer and he will learn to like them both. What will he do when old Joe shows up? Looper works with a familiar idea in a very original way. Rather than avoid the time travel paradox and its circularity it jumps right into it and makes it the main theme of the movie. On a first glance, the logic seems to work just fine. The key moment is when the lives of both Joes intersect and separate. The movie is also quite funny- there is a lot of physical humor. The action is good even remarkable as when the rainmaker gets angry and starts controlling the environment with his mind. That's because in 30 years from now there are mutants with telekinesis out there. The scenes surrounding the rainmaker in particular are exciting. Unfortunately we know his identity before the movie gets there. That aspect could have been handled better. It should really have been told from the perspective of old Joe and his tracking down of the the three kids. Another problem with this movie is that it tries to inject an emotional tone into the movie that is not suited and doesn't even belong there. For the most part of the movie, it doesn't try to present young Joe as likable or as ethical or as the good guy. On the contrary it's old Joe who is far more likable. But by the end we're supposed to feel more for young Joe. On the other hand, a little bit of romance between the farm lady and Joe is handled very well.
Looper is a fresh, original, and exciting movie. At 2 hours it's at least 15 minutes too long. It does have a lot to tell but at times it should have focused on other things. It could easily have been a 10 with some better editing.