Nothing to do with the butterfly effect (or chaos theory)

Rating: 3/10 (30 August 2004)

If you like violent thriller stories based in (and limited in scope to) small-town USA, this might be a movie for you. But if you expect insights into the theory of the butterfly effect or chaos, go look elsewhere, because - contrary to its title - this film has nothing to do with these things. The plot jumps back and forth in time, exploring different pathways in the lives of the main characters, but the implied effects small events have on these lives are hugely exaggerated and completely neglect the fact that a change in the human personality is also a dynamic process that takes time and is generally influenced by a lot of factors. Instead, in order to drive the whole story, the plot is stuffed with a hefty load of cliches and stereotypes, and the same characters in the alternative scenarios are often portrayed like very different people. The result is that the presented versions of events are hardly believable, differing essentially in who kills (or otherwise harms) whom, or whose life is completely ruined, in which of them. The movie had a few interesting twists and not too bad an ending (in the director's cut), but this doesn't change the fact that I was looking at the watch every two minutes or so for most of the time, wondering whether I would have enough strength and patience to see it to its end.