Product: Run, Lola, Run [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 5.0
The Butterfly Effect meets the Many Worlds Theory
This movie was just way too much fun!This film owes a deliciously quirky debt to Chaos Theory and Quantum Mechanics. Chaos Theory includes the Butterfly Effect which describes causal equations whose outcome are susceptible to very fine changes of input. (e.g. the air currents stirred by a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil starts a chain of atmospheric changes that effect whether or not it rains in New York.) In quantum mechanics, the Many Worlds Theory explains temporal paradoxes by proposing that for every possible variation of every event, a parallel universe is spawned which continues a particular chain of events.Our butterfly Lola flaps her wings over here and people meet, get married, age, and die over there. She flaps her wings a little differently and cars crash, people fight, Manni lives.The story is propelled by a brilliant pulse-quickening techno-dance soundtrack produced in part by the director. The movie, as a whole, works, hurling the audience towards the mutable, uncertain conclusion.Unfortunately, all is not perfect. The dubbed English dialog, at best, features uninspired performances and, at worst, completely discolors the movie. Fortunately, the art shines through this detracting artifact and the film still rates a "five."