Poor

Rating: Null/10 (26 April 2004)

***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***
So we've got a film about a teenager with mental problems, mixed in with a love story about a hero who has to go back in time to change the future for the better for his loved ones. Ring any bells?
Not only is this appallingly scripted, laughably acted and ill-thought-through film living off the success of Donnie Darko, it also has no ideas of its own to support itself. There are so many holes in the plot, and the logic of Evan (Ashton Kutcher)'s time travel is left completely unexplained, and for good reason. There isn't an explanation, because it doesn't make any sense. There are an outrageous number of huge coincidences in order to make each time-shift work (for example, Evan is always with the same 3 friends throughout his life) and at some moments, the characters' actions beggar belief. Tommy, first at 13, is absolutely ridiculous. I don't want to heap blame on a young actor because it isn't fair, so instead, I'm blaming the script. This poor boy has to wear a leather jacket, brutally beat up a 21-year-old jock, and deliver a fantastic 'evil laugh' on his way to being escorted out of the cinema. I hoped somebody would escort me out at the point where 13-year-old Evan tells Kayleigh, spontaneously, "You have no idea how beautiful you are."
There are a few horror moments too, for the audience. I don't mean scary, I mean horror at the inclusion of some atrocious scenes. If it isn't enough for a 13-year-old boy to persuade a grown man to cease his paedophilia merely by shouting at him (which left me laughing), the scene in which Evan wakes up with no arms is one of the most terrible pieces of cinema I have ever witnessed. I have absolutely no idea what Gruber and Bress were trying to do here, but if it was a poignant effect they wanted to create, then they missed the mark. Admittedly, that scene DID make me think. But only of puns ("He's 'armless", "Give me a hand" etc.)
All in all, one to miss. I'm bowled over by the amount of good reviews of this film, because it is definitely not worth seeing.