Intriguing concept, surprising Ashton Kutcher

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2004)

I know a lot of critics didn't like this movie, but I wonder how much of that had simply to do with not believing that Ashton Kutcher could act? Mind you the stuff he was doing here is not exactly Shakespeare, but it was passable. What is best about this movie was the storyline.
It's about a boy, Evan, who experiences frequent unexplained blackouts at landmark points of his life. Those early blackout go unexplained until he gets to university when he realizes that he is able to project himself into his own mind into the past and influence events from his own past. Kutcher just plays the oldest version of himself, the one going to university. Two other actors play this character as an elementary school boy, and as a high school teenager.
Everytime he goes back into the past, he tries to change something in order to fix a problem in his life, or his friends' lives, or his mother's life, etc. But it just ends up causing a catastrophe somewhere else.

Another great idea that they had was that Evan retains his memories from his past lives. Normally in other time travel movies, they wouldn't pay too much attention to this detail, it is just a given. However, in this one, the past comes rushing into his head in a brain-tearing frenzy, which causes his nose to bleed; stroke victims often have nosebleeds because their brains are bleeding. Everytime he changes the past, twenty years of memories from a previous life gets added to his brain. So there is this idea that if he goes into the past too much, his brain could almost literally explode.

If you watch this on DVD, then the DVD has two versions of this film, the theatrical version and the director's cut. The director's cut is much darker, and has a different ending. If you're a type that only wants happy endings and is disturbed by too much violence, then watch the theatrical version: this version has a neutral ending, and the prison scenes are toned down heavily. Otherwise, watch the director's cut: this ending is the more spiritual ending, about what fate awaits you if you're given the ability to play god.