a movie that does an exceedingly good job at being many things at once

Rating: 9/10 (7 June 2006)

*~~~* indicates spoiler
When i was watching this movie earlier today, all i could think was "wow this is so great!" The nice chunk of plot twists that are, now that i think of it, delightfully predictable, and the massive amount of parallelism and allusions *(how he's like his father and how he communicates with his dad, and learns so much about his 'illness' in a 2 minute talk with his dad, the spikes in the hands next to the religious cell mate, 'playing god')*. I personally love movies that make ya think - this one does a good amount of it. it is also very good at being incredibly dark (i haven't seen "Donnie Darko", but I'm renting it tomorrow) and does a fabulous job of illustrating how much stuff can get really seriously forked up, though a lot of it is somewhat unlikely (but then i watched the south park movie just before, so it seemed to me a healthy dose of realism). I'm also a really emotional guy, and i was straight up bawling at the end (theatrical version), cuz i knew exactly what was going to happen as soon as the video started playing. Stylisticly, its very successful (kudos to the visual effects guys for the minor amount of well-applied originality).
* Another thing to think about here for those of you that read this - i never thought for an instant that he was really changing the past, present and future. i had it in my head that everything except for the life he had at the very ending was a construct of his mind (think "Identity" with john cusack) in which he "remembers the future" (dimensional theory). The character changing evan undergoes is reminiscent of "Groundhog Day", though i personally would have made a few different decisions than evan did (like taking out the stick of boomy stuff - what does that accomplish? or how about standing in front of that stick of dynamite when he knows its about to blow) My comments on the ending - i personally think that it suited the movie well (TR, not DC), and is a little 'happy'. for a happy ending, try the camera looking at evan for a moment more upon which he clutches his head and essentially expresses "she is my soulmate - i know that for sure", and he turns around after her.
The movie is even a love story! (to me its the best one i've seen yet), cuz evan is willingly going to not risk his true love's life or happiness anymore, even though in reality she didn't experience any of what was in the movie (mind construct or time travel, either way). *
Overall a fantastic movie. I HIGHLY recommend it if you like things that make you think, or if you enjoy non-flamboyant time travel flicks ("12 Monkeys", etc.), or if you like any kind of dark sci-fi or fantasy.