Brilliant, outstanding and surprisingly effective movie

Rating: 7/10 (16 June 2004)

(Spoilers throughout the whole review, be warned :P)
I heard about "The Butterfly Effect" (TBE) from a friend of mine and even he told me it was really impressive, I couldn't find the time to go and watch it... till last weekend, when I went to the cinema, expecting something worth the watch. And sure it was :). TBE is one of the most entertaining movies I've seen in a while; I knew some bits and pieces of what the movie was about, but I couldn't make it up in my mind: "childhood trauma? time traveling using dairies? what the hell are they thinking!". It's obvious that when handling such a theme like time travels, you gotta be open-minded and try not the spend the whole movie yelling "oh look, there's a time travel paradox" or "how could this happen if he's not in that timeline..." and this kind of rubbish, because if you do, you'll ruin the movie.
You just have to get comfortable in your seat, grab your popcorn bucket and enjoy. Because that's why movies are made for: to entertain the audience. So, expecting a 2 hour enjoyable, well-spent time, I went to see TBE. After a prologue scene which at first glance seems to be forwarding future events, we get introduced to Evan as a child. The first couple of situations embraces Evan's blackout problem and shows how many tragic events he had suffered during his childhood. As a doctor's advice to help him with his blackouts, he starts writing a diary, in order to keep his day-by-day experiences. After several unfortunate events and a fast-paced intro to Evan's life, we meet Ashton Kutcher as Evan in his 20's, going at the university, having a normal life, with no blackouts at all.
But then, and with no reason, he finds out that when reading his diaries he wrote years ago, he gets back in time and is able to change the events, which means changing the future. So he starts finding out what happened when he had the blackouts, realizing several traumas he did not remember. And while at it, he tries to change the course of the tragic events that involved the girl he fancied, her brother and a friend. The more times he try to mend the futures of his friends, the worst they get. And that's quite an interesting way to keep you at the edge of your seat through the whole movie, because you can't see a good ending. It's getting worse and worse, and sometimes stupidly worse, but effective.
IMO, Ashton Kutcher delivers an splendid performance, having different personalities during the whole movie. We'll see whether he evolves as an actor or he remains in the teenage-movie star cliché. I believe he's got the talent to evolve towards something more serious than his previous performances.
"The Butterfly Effect" has got an incredibly fast-paced action, so fast that I was overwhelmed after 45 minutes! There's no movie out there that creeps you with child abuse, murder and traumatic events in a short period of time and gets a good result. The story embraced me, some moments scared the crap out of me, some others made me laugh, but I was kept entertained from the title to the ending credits. And when the last scene faded out, I realized I had been entertained during 2 hour-ish in front of a theater screen, which unfortunately it's not a common thing between nowadays movies. At least, that's what I think it's the main purpose of film-making: to entertain. And believe me, "The Butterfly Effect" is a perfect example of entertainment.
Definitely worth a look! 10/10