5 out of 5 stars.

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2011)

5 out of 5 stars. The Butterfly Effect is a powerful psychological thriller, which is also my personal favorite movie of all time. This story focuses on Evan, a character played by Ashton Kutcher. While I am not a big Ashton Kutcher fan, he was brilliant in this dramatic role. The first half hour takes place during Evan's childhood, where he experiences a series of disturbing events. During these times, Evan usually blacks out and does not recall what happened. Later in life when he is in college, those disturbing memories gradually are coming back to Evan, while he goes through a phase of trying to find himself through journals he wrote when he was younger. Evan soon realizes he can go back in time and he wants to do this to undo bad events that happened to other people. During this process, Even begins to understand that changing one event develops a ripple effect that can influence many changes both positive and negative. This is a deep and complex film, especially if you watch the director's cut. This movie will force yourself to question how much you are willing to sacrifice for those people you truly love. Another key issue within this film is how one brief moment in time can significantly impact the rest of someone's life. Most DVDs of The Butterfly Effect have both the theatrical and director's cut versions on the same disc. It is most worthwhile to watch the entire director's version, and then view the ending of the theatrical version (chapter 20).