Something different, Something good.

Rating: 8/10 (24 December 2004)

Warning, may contain spoilers...
This film is a story about a young boy (Kutcher's character) who suffers from brief periods of mysterious blackouts during traumatic moments. His psychiatric doctor sources these periods of blackouts as hemorrhages on the brain due to stress and advises the young boy to keep diaries of his daily activities. When Evan grows up, upon reading his diaries, he is able to somehow revisit his periods of blackouts and change pieces of the past. Each time goes back, seeking to make things better, the end result is disaster - at least until he is able to change and rechange it again.
Evan's blackouts make us quickly relate to him because the story makes us become just as vulnerable and confused as he is. What's more, we are able to relate to him because when he makes changes in his past, those are changes that we (or anyone with a decent set of values) would make.
The acting, directing, editing and cinematography in the this film is outstanding! After seeing countless movies that all follow similar patterns in the range of narration, this film is a really nice change of pace. It is mostly psychological and takes a certain kind of mind to find appreciation in this film.
If you haven't seen this movie, it's somewhere along the lines of Kevin Beacon's "Stir of Echos" and Steven Spielburg's "Back to the Future". The internal logic of the film is consistent and all the rules of time travel are strictly followed.
I watched this film on the DVD which comes in two different cuts: one side is the theatrical release and the other side is the director's cut. Because of the alternate endings, after watching the film, both endings have an entirely different feel to them. I first watched the director's cut and hated the ending; then I flipped the disc over and watched the ending of the theatrical cut. Wow, two completely different endings that will leave you either hating the film (director's cut ending) or seeing it as bittersweet (theatrical cut ending).
In short, it's a very good film, great acting and excellent production values! 8 stars out of 10, go see it!