Dude, where's my memory?

Rating: 6/10 (20 February 2005)

The trailer didn't look too exciting, most reviews I read were unfavourable, and I had no real desire to see Ashton Kutcher "doing serious", so it was only after a few friends recommended it that I decided to watch 'The Butterfly Effect'. And to be honest it wasn't as bad as I had expected.
Kutcher's character, Evan, has been prone to blackouts since he was young, an ailment apparently inherited from his institutionalised father. The blackouts occur without warning and he invariably wakes up in the middle of some sort of crisis, or at least considerably worse off than when he went under, with absolutely no memory of what happened. Kutcher plays Evan when he's 20 years old, and the blackouts have returned. After the death of an old friend, he manages to remember what happened all those times he blacked out, which opens a whole new world of possibilities.
The first hour or so of the film is well constructed, leading the viewer through Evan's fragmented mind, touching on some delicate subjects, and intermittently shocking us to make sure we're still paying attention. However, when Evan begins recovering his lost memories, the plot takes quite a turn and the quality of the film suffers. The second half of the film lacks the cohesion and narrative flow of the first half, and any tension created slips away with the continuity out the back door, seemingly replaced by violence and an unnecessary overuse of the word 'f**kbag'.
There are some good ideas on display here, some handled well, some manhandled, and the slightly bizarre ending left an odd taste in my mouth, like soap and ice-cream. It can be enjoyable but whether you'll think it was worth it after two hours is open to debate.