Intriguing premise eventually let down

Rating: Null/10 (28 June 2004)

It seems that the less we know, the better a movie sometimes is.
Butterfly Effect starts out *extremely* promisingly, with more than a hint of a psychological edge.
Ashton Kutcher is Evan, a lad who's suffered mysterious blackouts for years, but into his late teens is impressed to have gone 7 years without a single one. They were always the same - he'd suddenly gain consciousness and find himself in a position he can't remember getting into. This made for a decidedly interesting plot, but unfortunately the more we see, the sillier it gets. When a date comes back to his college dorm and discovers the journals he used to write as a result of advice from his doctor (With respect to the blackouts), she asks him to read out loud what he wrote. However, amazingly while reading it he finds himself back in time during an incident which occurred in his youth. This sets up the rest of the movie as he realises his journals are a portal to his past, and to discovering what happened during his blackouts.
On paper this really does sound promising, but somehow it just doesn't work. Kutcher is hardly versatile as an actor, so he's not entirely convincing if tolerable enough, but the plot does him no favours. The concept of going back in time is unbelievable enough, but the idea that reading a notebook out loud achieves this journey is nothing short of ridiculous. Even now, I still can't fathom what on earth chaos theory (Which is what the title Butterfly Effect refers to) has to do with this. This is nothing more than a popcorn timetravel movie about changing destiny, yet the title refers to the concept of how one insignificant action on one side of the Atlantic (Like a butterfly flapping its wings) could cause a hurricane on the other side of the Atlantic. Totally unprovable of course, but also far removed from the 'chain reaction' plot of Butterfly Effect.
Anyway, forgiving this discrepancy and back to criticising the story, because while there's no doubt it holds your attention throughout, it is just so silly. It loses its psychological grip once the main plot device kicks in and descends into implausible and convoluted sci-fi.
It is hard to sum up the film, such is its nature, but suffice to say it is let down by its own attempt at being original.