Ludicrous and SOOOOO "Teen," yet a lot of fun

Rating: Null/10 (9 August 2004)

There is MANY A SPOILER BELOW, so if you haven't seen it yet, don't read this review!
This movie is very bad in many ways, yet totally enjoyable and definitely a fun, mind-bending rental. It's main flaw is just its immaturity. It SCREAMS 'teen' in how overly emotional and overwrought it all is. It screams 'simplistic writer/directors who think their movie is SO HARD-HITTING and DEEP but is really rather juvenile.' Chief among the reasons it creates this effect is the inclusion of subject matter WAYYY too dark for a film this silly. Child porn, animal torture and killing, killing of infants, drug abuse and prostitution, loss of limbs this movie is really rubbing your face in horror, cruelty, and sadism, ostensibly to make it all more 'serious.' Unfortunately the rest of the movie isn't up to the seriousness these subjects demand and I think it really does a disservice to the viewer's ability to take the story seriously.
Another problem is that the filmmakers seem to mistake stupidity for destiny. The idea carried in the film is that whatever Ashton does to correct the future only makes it worse. Well, maybe if Aston didn't do such wholly stupid things, the future would have turned out better. For example, maybe it's not that great an idea to go stand right next to a mailbox you know is going to explode in a few seconds? Maybe a lit stick of dynamite in the hands of a ten year old is not the best intimidation tool against an aggressive adult? The film treated the outcomes of these situations as 'destined,' but maybe if the characters weren't quite so stupid they wouldn't have turned out that way? This makes the ending of the theatrical version all the more ludicrous as thus far EVERYTHING has gone wrong when Ashton tries to fix the past, but then at the end--presto!--everything's fine!
There were other off-the-chart suspension of disbelief aspects, like that you can go back in time just be reading your journal, that Ashton's MIND doesn't change even though his whole past has now changed, etc., etc. The GRAVITY with which the film approaches all this SHEER LUDICROUSNESS only makes it that much more fun.
But accept it for what it is, and it's a totally enjoyable 'Woah dude, like what if that really happened?' kind of movie. I was completely engrossed all the way through, and there were many mind-bender twists like when I realized that if Ashton goes back BEFORE he started keeping his journal, then he won't be able to change anything, and also when I pieced together that when he was blacking out as a child, that was when he was 'visiting' himself as an adult. The movie never explains why he can't just write a new journal page about the past and use that to go back, but quibbling will get you nowhere with this one.
The contrast between how SERIOUS the filmmakers seem to think this movie is (and I didn't listen to the commentary, but others have described it as VERY SERIOUS) and just how TEEN the whole thing comes off as is really precious. I ADORE how in one incarnation Ashton is supposed to be a weird, not-especially-popular or fashionable college student who is best friends with the overweight goth guy, yet he is dressed at the ZENITH of hipster GLAMOUR. And then all the soundtrack selections you half expect a little shot of the soundtrack album cover to come up in the corner with a 'Now Available!' line. The whole aesthetic and execution of this film is SOOOOO MTV.
The director's cut ending follows through on the seriousness the movie has been operating on until then, and actually achieves a kind of beautiful grace note at the end--provided you are willing to go along with all the ludicrous conventions the film has set up before. This film sort of makes a good contrast with 'IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE' in that the conclusion here is that everything would have been much better is the main character HAD NEVER BEEN BORN. I liked the darkness of all that, and the final show of how everything went 'right' since Ashton wasn't ever born was kind of moving.
The theatrical cut ending has all the hallmarks of running scared from test audiences. Like I said, Ashton changes one more thing and then--as if by MAGIC!--everything's fine! I also like how audiences could NOT be left without a feeling of hope for the romance, so it gives the indication that Ashton might meet the girl again later in life--and everything will work out OOOOOOKAY!
Overall, NOT a 'good' movie by any stretch of the imagination, but still completely enjoyable and fun to watch.
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