Unusual film

Rating: 8/10 (21 September 2005)

Considering that 'The Butterfly Effect' is a mainstream Hollywood film with a teen-movie cast, it is surprisingly dark and imaginative. The time travel plot is reminiscent of an excellent novel 'Replay' by Ken Grimwood but is fairly fresh in cinematic terms. There are some very bleak themes in here - paedophilia, mental illness, prison rape, murder and the interesting idea that no matter what path the hero chooses he makes things worse either for himself or his friends. This is also one of the few films where the studio ending is better than the director's cut - the original ending where he chokes himself to death in the womb crosses the line from dark to plain silly.