From stunning to ridiculous

Rating: 6/10 (22 January 2006)

The concept behind this film is an interesting one that will surely captivate the audience as it did for me. However, I think somewhere down the line in the production something went wrong. The movie starts out brilliantly and Ashton Kutcher's acting really impressed me. The flashback scenes with the children are some of the most powerful, moving and disturbing sequences I have ever witnessed in cinema. I am not exaggerating they are fantastic!!
I think the problem is that there are two different films here, one is a big budget time travelling bonanza and the second is an indie flick about one man's disturbing past, quite similar to 'Mysterious Skin'. I realise there has to be a reason for Evan to go back in time but the flashbacks overshadowed the scenes where we see Evan's changed future in quality. I also felt that (although talented in this role) Ashton Kutcher was a strange choice due to the fact that the fans that he would attract would not necessarily be drawn to this film.
The film seems to get steadily more and more insane with its changing futures and the ending just appalled me with its over obvious, over the top dramatics. It was clear that he had to kill himself and I can only guess that the horrendous foetus incident happened because they couldn't show a grown man killing himself to the 13 year olds that would watch this for Ashton Kutcher.
Basically I wish that there was some way to take the flashback scenes and put them in another film. I still would recommend this film to anyone to watch as the concept is great, the flashbacks are riveting and it is very entertaining. Just be prepared to want to block the ending from your mind after watching it.