Looping the Loop

Rating: 8/10 (1 February 2013)

Think too hard and too long about "Looper" and your head is likely to explode, either now, in the future, or sometime in the past.
It is that kind of movie, a complex web of time shifts which can easily meld in to one and leave you wondering where exactly you are in the time/space continuum, a little like "Inception".
As long as you are not a total sceptic when it comes to time travel, and can put aside some of the more obvious questions (like how a pin-point accurate time travel system appears to require no more than a ground sheet and four bricks as a receiving station), this a great movie.
"Looper" has a hidden depth that reveals itself as we go, though never slow on action and subtle hints as to what is to come - some of which I'm convinced will take a second viewing to properly hit home. At some point in the movie it dawns on you why even the title of the movie has a deeper significance than being simply the name appropriated by the mob's high-rolling hit-men.
For me the revelation came at a point that I was totally drawn in to the film, and emotionally invested in both the moment and the characters.
It was one of those stomach-churning moments that turns a good movie great.