Anti-Quantum Leap

Rating: Null/10 (29 April 2004)

The trailer for this film made it look like a mess. Giving us far too much information in a few seconds and turning me completely off it. I only saw it at the cinema because there was nothing else on and I'm glad I gave it a tiny chance.
The concept is intriguing and the execution is brilliantly done. Set at three different stages in the lives of the four main characters we are quickly familiar with the sometimes curious, sometimes devastating events that shape their lives. The relationships between Evan, Kalley, Lenny and Tommy are very well developed and it's very interesting to watch them twist and change as Evan suffers from constant black-outs, Tommy goes totally insane and Kalley and Lenny even insaner. Almost all of them end up in the nut-house at some point.
It's at this point that the older Evan (a horrifically bearded, pre-packaged, homogenised and sexually neutral 'pretty boy' Ashton Kutcher) decides to time travel back to his childhood, thanks to his incredible memory (how this is achieved is never explained!!!) and put right what once went wrong. Only each time he tries he just makes things worse and worse.

The storylines involving the younger quartet are truly the best bits of the film. The young Tommy is one of the most evil and depraved characters I have ever seen and the younger Evan is far more interesting than his future counterpart. Whenever the film flashes forward to the college years I found it extremely lagging and wished for another time travel scene. Ashton Kutcher was far less expressive than his younger actors.

And am I the only one noticing several nods to Se7en? Not only do they go see the movie as kids (how they got in is never explained either but I'm assuming they got tickets for Dumb and Dumber and sneaked in) but Evan's journals (his method of time travel!) are exactly the same as John Doe's and are written in the same manner. A curious bit of trivia indeed.

For a film with a great story, a few scares and wonderfully (if not nicely) developed characters then seriously check this out. Tho I have one thing to ask the older Evan. What do you think is going to happen to your body if you stand in front of a mailbox being exploded by a lethal stick of dynamite???