MOVIE - THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT - Review Rating $$$ (OUT OF 10)
STARRING - Ashton Kutcher (Evan Treborn), Amy Smart (Kayleigh Miller),
William Lee Scott (Tommy Miller), Elden Henson (Lenny Kagan), Eric Stoltz (George Miller) & Melora Walters (Andrea Treborn).
CO-DIRECTORS/WRITERS - Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber (Debut)
The Butterfly Effect is an interesting movie in certain respects. Bress and Gruber clearly decided that attempting to ground this story in reality wasn't possible. At least you hope that's what they decided because there's not even a remote chance that the plot could be taken seriously. Sure, they throw in some psycho-babble, to hint at an explanation for Treborn's (Kutcher) condition, but cleverly avoid presenting a definitive psychiatric diagnosis.
Throwing caution to the wind in this manner does, oddly enough, provides Bress and Gruber a lot of latitude in how the story develops. Hey, when your not constrained by logic or common sense, this movie script writing thing isn't that hard after all.
The first thing they do with the freedom bestowed upon them is to create unnecessarily vile circumstances for the cast to deal with. It's a sad day when movies such as The Butterfly Effect introduce serious issues like child abuse and pornography to merely gross out their audience. Bress and Gruber deserve to be roundly denounced for trivializing these issues in the manner they do. At one point they have the audacity to suggest that a freaky lecture from a ten year old was all that was required to prevent Kayleigh's (Smart) father from abusing her. In the process they do a great disservice to those tirelessly working to prevent such abuse and those subjected to it.
The rest of the movie is no better in this regard. Tommy Miller is not only the nastiest character since Damion he also apparently is imbued with superhuman strength. This scrawny ten year old beats up people more than twice his size with the ease of a WWF wrestler. Like I said, when you have little or no regard for plausibility, things like that are apparently possible.
If you can somehow ignore the plot holes, which are too numerous to list, you may start to get caught up in whether or not Treborn can make things right. The story is, however, far from original and has been done much better in numerous other films and T.V. shows. Thus, there is little incentive to go see The Butterfly Effect's take on messing with the time continuum.
The only redeeming aspect of the film is the nonsensical ending. The idea that what you do, as opposed to what others do, may be the source of everyone's problem is at least a token tip of the hat to taking personal responsibility for your actions. That being said, and without giving the ending totally away, it's hard to imagine Kayleigh's life turning out right based on Treborn not doing one thing. Her father would still have been a wicked pedophile and her brother a bad ass. But that's just another of those inconvenient details that Bress and Gruber are hoping your not paying any attention to. The odds of the audience not noticing are heightened by the fact I haven't watched a film with this many fourteen year olds since I was in Junior High.
Those fourteen year olds were there to see teen heartthrob Kutcher. I read somewhere that he wanted to do a serious role to demonstrate he wasn't just a pretty boy. Well, Kutcher is no Tom Cruise and The Butterfly Effect isn't Rainman. To be fair his performance is passable. To be honest the kid that plays his character as a child is a better actor. Kutcher might also want to think about getting a new agent because he has yet to star in a movie worth seeing (Cheaper By The Dozen and My Boss's Daughter).
The Butterfly Effect is the early favorite for Worst Movie of 2004.
Running time - 113 minutes
Check out my TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2003 & WORST MOVIES OF 2003 lists.
Alternative Reviews:
Roger Ebert's Review
Rotten Tomatoes Reviews
The Butterfly Effect Official Web Site
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2005
David Schwartz.
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2/28/05; 1:49:08 AM.
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