The critics really dropped the ball and turned a cold shoulder on a fine film here

Rating: 9/10 (6 July 2004)

(note: this is a review of the director's cut of the film, which has a completely different ending than the theatrical release)
The Butterfly Effect was either ignored or ridiculed by most major critics. Most minor ones, too. In reality, while it has its flaws, and some rather big ones, too, it is one of the best films to be released so far in 2004. It is already being rediscovered by audiences, and I think it will find a home amongst the lovers of gimmick films such as Memento and Donnie Darko. I am a fan of all three of these films, and it's not because they're based on clever gimmicks. Plenty of films have clever gimmicks and completely fail. I like these three particular films because they're intelligent and have strong stories that move them beyond their central gimmicks. The Butterfly Effect is about a young man (Ashton Kutcher) who experienced severe blackouts during traumatic moments when he was a child. As an adult, he discovers that he can travel back to these forgotten events and change their outcome. Unfortunately, every time he changes things for what should be the better, some individual always gets the shaft. Besides himself, the major players in the story are his mother (Melora Walters), his girlfriend, Kayleigh, her brother, Tommy, and their friend, Lenny. The story is gripping. It's hard not to imagine situations in your own life that you'd want to change, so the appeal is universal. As Kutcher changes time and time again, he starts to lose grip of reality. His desperation grows deeper each time he changes the past.
The movie does lose its footing as it nears the finish. One can imagine how hard it must be to end a story like this. It looked as if they were going to go with the 'It's all just a dream' ending, which really p***ed me off. Then they cheated their gimmick a little, which, as annoying as that was, it wasn't as annoying as the previous option. Then came kind of an ugly ending which really angered me, and which upsets a lot of what happened in the film in the first place. After a bit of time thinking it over, though, it didn't seem quite as bad as it first did. There are still some major holes this way around, but it made sense thematically.
As for the technical feats, The Butterfly Effect is very well done. The writers/directors, Bress and Gruber, may not get everything right, but they have delivered an ambitious and thoughtful film. Better yet, they delivered it right to a multiplex audience who doubtless went in expecting escapism. What they'll get is something ten times more challenging than anything else they'll see this year. The look of it is good, it's well edited, and there's really good use of music and sound.
The final question has to be this: so, can Ashton Kutcher deliver a dramatic performance? The answer is yes, but not an unqualified yes. Truthfully, the protagonist of the story could have been improved. He's more of cypher than anything, and a lot of the emotional value comes from the side characters whose lives he effects. Kutcher isn't asked to do too much. Still, he holds his own in plenty of scenes. He was quite good, for instance, in the sequence where he goes to prison. I wonder if all the pans this film received came because it was a drama starring that goofball from Dude, Where's My Car? I think, in the long run, if Kutcher wants to become a dramatic actor, he could pull it off. He's a handsome guy with a lot of charm. 9/10.