The Butterfly Effect

Rating: 10/10 (30 June 2006)

Evan, a boy growing up with his single, struggling mother, suffers from traumatizing "blackouts" in his life. They're moments when he swears he was in one place, then finds himself in another - disoriented and confused. His mother is deeply concerned, namely because her husband (Evan's father) used to suffer from the same predicament which ultimately led to his incarceration in a mental facility. The movie shows Evan at 7 where he is in trouble at school for things he can't remember. And at 13 where he is suspected for a huge crime committed in his neighborhood that he blacked out for. But all through his life, his friends, brother and sister Tommy and Kayleigh, and Lenny have been with him. Kayleigh always held a place in his heart. Seven years after his last blackout, at the age of 20, college student Evan finds journals that he has written throughout his life detailing moments of when he blacked out. He also finds that reading them can make him travel back through time to the place of the memory. He first goes to visit Kayleigh back in their hometown. The past has had it's toll on her, like Tommy (a demented psycho for living with his father) and Lenny (who after being pushed around by Tommy has deep emotional scars). Evan then decides to use the journals to time travel and rewrite the past - hoping to make his own life, and that of Kayleigh, Tommy, and Lenny's, better. But every decision he makes, turns out worse and worse later on in life. Making Kayleigh, his one true love, suffer from each choice he made in his alternate reality.
"Change one thing, change everything."
I thought the movie was superb, excellent. While not yet a tearjerker, it certainly makes you cry and while not completely a sci-fi, it has the incredible power to make you think and feel strongly about the film. Some parts were truly disturbing, but all tastefully done. The movie was all around genuine and wonderful. Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart played well-depth and believable characters that make you hope beyond belief for the best. John Patrick Amedori was brilliant; he and Logan Lerman are young and fresh yet talented. Other great characters were Irene Gorovaia, Melora Walters, Elden Henson, William Lee Scott, Kevin Schmidt, Jesse James, and Ethan Suplee. The end will have you tearing up and feeling and cherishing every memory and choice that Evan and you have made in life.