Change One Thing, Change Everything

Rating: 6/10 (18 January 2019)

The Butterfly Effect is a brain teasing thriller, that slowly connects Evan Treborn's childhood blackouts to his father's special gift. As Evan grows up he experiences multiple mysterious blackouts. Evan and his friends are very devious and end up doing taking pranks too far. Because of Evans blackouts he can't remember what dangerous actions he had done. Years later Evan takes a look at his childhood journals and they end up taking him to places he doesn't remember. Evan has the ability to go back into his childhood and change the past in order to change the future.
Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber first introduce the film with a low-lighted, flat angle shot of the main character, Evan Treborn, running through the halls of a mental institution. The character is dressed in a hospital gown which suggests that he was a patient at that hospital. The lighting stays the same for a sequence, then moves to a downward facing camera angle as Evan Treborn crawls under a desk and scribbles in a journal. The film consists of multiple camera angles to entertain and thrill the audience.
The Butterfly Effect is packed with several flashbacks. In the beginning, the use of flashbacks in this film make the storyline hard to follow, but these flashbacks are necessary at the end of the film. Along with flashbacks, the directors use a specific selection of music in the film. The music creates suspense and keeps the audience focused on the film and story. Music helps the audience relate back to the film and keep the audience intrigued.
Ashton Kutcher plays Evan Treborn in this film and he is able to convince the audience through his acting and dialogue that his character had the ability to go back in time and change the past and drastically change the future. Kutcher showed the audience a variety of roles in this film. For example an intelligent college student, a selfish member of a fraternity, as well as a mentally unstable young adult. He was able to transform himself into each character, with different personalities and styles. His range of characters were impressive, and he was clearly the best one for this job. His role in this movie paved the way for a diverse acting career.
The Butterfly Effect is an intriguing film, that explored the theory of the "butterfly effect". It's a good movie if you are patient and interested in a whirlwind of flashbacks and a rollercoaster of plot twists. The storyline allows for the story to change and surprise the viewers, and create a magical experience.