"I'll send you a postcard when I've made everything perfect again."

Rating: 8/10 (6 September 2008)

The Butterfly Effect is a sci-fi thriller that centers around four childhood friends: Evan, Kayleigh (the girl he secretly loves), Tommy (her jealous, violent brother) and Lenny (an overly shy, slightly mentally unstable kid). The four kids encounter a series of traumatic, life determent/changing events together. Evan, the son of a mental patient, has blackouts chronically and he has suppressed all those traumatic events, until one day (fourteen years later) he reads one of his old journals. He discovers he can go back in time and tries to right the wrongs of the past but every time he tries to do so he ends up making it worse. Nothing goes as planned and the actions he undertakes in the past (how slight they may seem) have grave consequences in the present
Whilst being obviously plot-driven, the acting wasn't too shabby either. I can appreciate Ashton Kutcher's comedy roles but assessing his career at the moment, I think he desperately needs to get back into more serious roles. He's good, probably never will be Oscar-good, but still. Knowing Melora Walter's phenomenal tour-de-force in 'Magnolia', she's a tad under performing in TBE. There really can't be any complaining about the any of the 'flashback' casts either, especially teenage Evan left an impression. When youngest Evan started talking trash I admit to having trouble taking him seriously and repressed a laugh out loud.
Paired with this is the more than solid and mention-worthy soundtrack, a good mix between sounds (like the flutter of a butterfly's wings theme) and songs (like Oasis' Stop Crying Your Heart Out at the end) to create the appropriate atmosphere for the kind of cool, fast-moving thriller TBE is. The visual look: blue tones dominating, modern, accentuates the cool vibe even further.
Timetravel films form a tricky business. This amazing ability provides the protagonist unavoidably with tremendous power, which in turn can take all of the tension out of the story. In order for us to be biting our nails during a film, we have to think that there's no way out of the box, and so the screenwriters need to think out of the box. The concept of the 'butterfly effect', where all changes in the past directly and substantially affect not only your own but everyone's future is very useful. Not only does Evan have to battle his present obstacles, but also his past ones. The fact that you can't see the events the first time (because he blacks them out) also keeps you eagerly awaiting and guessing.
In 'The Butterfly Effect' we get dragged into a whirlpool of plot lines and characters ever changing with each 'trip', which provides potential for confusion. However, in order to counteract this the writers often verbalize plot points or thoughts: we see Evan talking to himself after he discovers his mother's lung cancer "You started chain smoking after I blew myself up." followed by "If I hadn't blown my arms off, Mom never would've started smoking in the first place." That kind of dialog rubs me the wrong way, we hear the wheels of the plot turning more often than we should...but on the other hand I realize it's a movie developed for a broad audience.
Some segments captured my interest less than others, the whole 'prison' storyline clearly being the weakest although I do see the motivation for putting it in the script. It's the only time (except for the beginning/ending) where he's literally cornered himself. The greatest parts involved a dramatic explosives incident, the outcome of which reverberated well into the future and it clearly held the key to 'making everything perfect again' ( JASON: You can't play God, son. It must end with me. Just by being here, you may be killing your mother. EVAN Bullshit. I'll send you a postcard when I've made everything perfect again.) A real surprise here when all of a sudden - just when you think you figured out how far the scriptwriters were willing to go drama-wise - we see Evan without arms. The movie becomes darker and darker, the greater his actions in the past the graver the consequences in the present/future, and the happy end thus came as a surprise to me. They had to stretch believability (home movies have the same effect as journals?) and undermine their own philosophical/moral lessons that have been laid out throughout the movie for it. The movie is quite dark and cynical (you can't play God!) and the ending is totally the opposite. Reading about the director's cut, it sounded more logical to me. Nevertheless, I'm fond of the original ending...because I didn't see it coming.
A fun, cool thriller I recommend to lots of people. 8/10