Audacious blend and original storyline marred only slightly by clichéd trappings

Rating: 7/10 (14 April 2004)

We see Evan Treborn as he grows up, from an early age suffering short black-outs during key traumatic events. It is a strange (and potentially dangerous) psychological condition that his father (now in a mental asylum) also suffered from. Tension, and mystification, grows - as we are also kept in the dark as to what happened during these pivotal moments. Evan's father, on reaching adulthood, learnt how to go back in his mind and actually recall events that had been previously blocked off. But what if you could not only go back and remember them but change what you did in those few moments? Those changes might well affect all those around you

This fairly original and difficult premise is one that threatens to cross the genres - from psychological thriller to sci-fi to supernatural. For most of the film, poor Evan doesn't know what is happening and neither does the audience, but the tension and plot ingenuity are enough to keep you on your seat and guessing until some pieces start fitting - or erupting - into place. One of the most original of any 'alternative timeline' stories to come to the screen, the film's vision of what it wants to achieve almost seems too much to expect it to fulfil - but the increasing shocks, not to mention the emotional investment the main character achieves (in spite of fairly humdrum acting and a so-so script), keep the audience willing to put up with most things as long as there is going to be some sort of denouement. Whether that conclusion will completely satisfy you is another matter.
Sci-fi fans will maybe accept it the way they accepted Donnie Darko. Psycho-Horror addicts that enjoyed Gothika may find this is a not dissimilar mix. Literary enthusiasts may even find it a lot more meaningful than, say, Sliding Doors, as it maybe has a lot to say about memories and how we deal with them. Changing one thing in our own reality has a ripple effect - a domino or 'butterfly' effect on everything else. We could take a moral from this and see how changing one thing inside us changes the rest of lives, especially how we perceive and shape the future and the lives of people we know and care about.
Whilst a provocative piece of filmmaking, The Butterfly Effect is no masterpiece: writer/directors Bress and Gruber have some way to go before they can turn in such an ambitious project and satisfy both mainstream audiences and the critics. There are many who will write this film off as a gimmicky, cliché-ridden example of supernatural nonsense that panders to the lowest denominator with violence, sudden shocks, animal and child abuse, mutilation, drugs and all the other fast-food ingredients so often demanded for a fun-filled evening at the cinema. Or you may, as I did, admire the sheer audacity of the story and give it some leeway.
***Spoilers*** The last two episodes of the film are the ones that, if any, give the film its more enduring relevance and meaning. They raise the question of what we do with memories, of how we 'close the door' on memories that haunt us - or face the ensuing psychological hell to which those memories can consign us. The film as a whole then also raises the question of responsibility for our actions.