Fairly entertaining time travel story

Rating: 6/10 (5 April 2005)

If you listen to those who follow the chaos theory than something like the flutter of a butterfly's wings can cause a ripple effect that could be catastrophic and that's the primary idea here in this film as someone keeps trying to change events by traveling back in time. Story is about Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher) who by reading his journal entries can travel back to a certain time in his life when he was young. As a youngster Evan suffered from blackouts and was unable to remember things that he did and he's advised by his doctor and his mother Andrea (Melora Walters) to write his day to day life in journals.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** Upon reading passages in his journals Evan travels back to when he was young and finding out what exactly happened during his blackouts but he discovers that when he tries to change things in the past it has repercussions that effect not only himself but his friends. The events in his childhood also changed the lives of his girlfriend Kayleigh Miller (Amy Smart), her brother Tommy (William Lee Scott), and their friend Lenny Kagan (Elden Henson) so Evan continues to travel back and forth attempting to straighten everything out.
This is directed by both Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber and it comes from their script that has been kicking around Hollywood for years until Kutcher expressed interest in it and helped get it made. We have all seen our share of time travel flicks before and the reason they keep getting made is that the basic premise is always intriguing and it's hard not to be interested in a story like this. I think the jury is still out as to how good an actor Kutcher is but I have to admit that he's pretty good here and he keeps things moving even though the film is clearly too long. My main complaint about this film is that Kutcher time travels endlessly and there is so much flip flopping going on that it grows tiresome after awhile and it does test an audiences patience. The performances are all pretty good and Smart gets a rare chance to show her versatility as an actress as her character goes from a waitress to a sorority queen to a badly scarred drug addicted prostitute. As far as time travel films go this is of course nowhere near the classics "The Time Machine" or "Time After Time" but it is a fairly entertaining film that boasts an attractive cast and I guess you can call me gullible because I'm a sucker for these types of films.