How Evan might solve his dilemma...

Rating: 8/10 (1 May 2011)

We've all thought at times, "If only I could relive that event, I do it so much better..", but we all know that's impossible.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!! Well, alternate realities, time travelling to the past while retaining the knowledge of the present, to do just that, is at the heart of this movie as countless reviewers have no doubt discussed.
The problem, as the movie unfolds, is that every time central character Evan does this, it does fix some or even much of the problem, but something else goes horribly wrong.
I'm thinking of when Evan returns to the pedophile movie session set up by his supposedly trustworthy babysitter and rebukes him, thus changing the future to a rosy one where he, his girlfriend Kayleigh and friend Lenny enjoy happy times at college. Kayleigh's brother Tommy is still as psycho as ever, but I guess you can't win them all.
Where this scenario went wrong was when Evan overreacted to Tommy's aggression and killed him. Clearly Evan could return to the same timepoint (as indeed he does in another scenario), avoid that specific crime and the prison which followed.
So my point is, Having made a specific attempt and noting what went wrong, why not return to the same point-in-time (instead of going to a different one) but this time avoid the bad outcomes? Hone the scenario until you get what you want.
This systematic, "scientific" approach would no doubt make for a pretty boring movie, but it does seem at least a logical way for Evan to tackle his dilemma.
With the movie as it is, Evan alters the past/present in ways which increasingly limit his options to change matters, finally resulting in him dying before being born, the ultimate "time out"...
Clever movie, but so frustrating to see how this power - if it could ever exist - was not being used intelligently..