Reviews

Part of me wants to love this movie.

But the reality is that this movie kinda sucks.

Amy Smarts performance is incredible, in fact most of the cast put in stellar performances.

Kutcher does a decent, albeit flawed, job.

Eric Stoltz is at his creepy best, giving an unnervingly toxic portrayal of a sadistic child abuser.

Most of the performances are great, however it is Smarts that really stands out. A+ performance from her.

My biggest problem with this movie is not how far fetched it is, but how it sets clear ground rules and then proceeds to smash them into oblivion any time it suits the narrative.

That's just so annoying and a massive fail for any serious movie watcher.

The obvious points being the fact that no one outside of Evans social circle has their reality changed at all by events that take place (which completely goes against the premise of chaos theory) and the other clear failure being the scene where young Evan impales his hands in front of the teacher.

This is the point where I completely lost all respect for the narrative and distances myself from any further involvement or close scrutiny.

The story does not in any way support the idea that young Evan impaled his hands, in any of the supposed realities. It's just a cheap trick that is inserted to solve a problem.

It's a tacky way of making ends meet.

Its a major major plot hole, and one that all but casual viewers should find immensely aggravating.

We are also given no clue as to how this all started for Evan, or at what point he had his first blackout.

And he has regular blackouts, and blackouts which are a direct result of him shifting back to a different reality? No clear explanation as to which blackouts are which.. We are left guessing as to how this works within the framework of the rules loosely set by Butterfly Effect.

This starts to wear thin by the sorority scene.

So, let's get this straight, when Evan reads and focuses on an entry in his journal written following a blackout, he can move himself back to the point in time the blackout that prompted the journal entry occured.. okay, fine.

Except in the all important final sequence this isn't what happens, this rule is not observed in the slightest.

Instead, Evan uses a home video of his own birth to transport back to the point where he is about to be born. This makes zero sense.

I know this is one of the alternate endings but it is the one I watched most recently prior to writing the review.

The hardest part of Butterfly Effect to accept is just how incredibly great this movie could have been if just slightly more effort was worked into the plot.

The key areas are all covered - a great premise; fundamentally brilliant performances from a cast whom appear to gel effortlessly; a somewhat unknown but more than capable cast made of up not-yet-famous but suitably gifted actors.. the possibility for multiple different endings, mirroring the moral of the story; solid cinematography, editing, score etc..... and yet it is all for nothing.

Imagine if this movie had been delayed just long enough to fill the obvious plot holes, and they had released 3 or 4 differing endings.. all randomly selected throughout movie theatres.. viewers arguing over what happened, debating over what the ending was, confused as to just how great the movie was and what reality they had experienced during the showing.. just imagine how many people would have gone to watch this film multiple times upon release.

That would have been epic.

Instead we get this schtick.

The movie equivalent to noodles in tomato sauce.

Jason was on the wrong side of the road, with opiates in his system and likely sending text messages when he caused a head on collision causing the deaths of two other people.

How he can look anyone in the eye and claim this was simply a road traffic accident is beyond belief.

We saw glimpses of his delusional god fearing persona throughout the documentary..we also saw telltale psychological signs of guilt, not to mention enough evidence that proved he was to blame for the collision.. however it seems the jury did not pick up what the viewer surely did, in that here is a man so fiercely in denial of any guilt that he is willing to take to his grave the fact that his recklessness caused the death of two others.

Shame on him and shame on the prosecutor.

Frankly, I am appalled that he was found not guilty and the prosecution in this case must be utterly inept as to not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that what Jason did amounted to a crime.

The US "justice" system; ladies and gentlemen.

Perhaps there are parts of America, even in this day and age, where the face simply just fits..

Sad to say this does seem like a genuine suicide.

Nothing really stands out about this case that persuades the viewer that this was a murder.

Granted the family come up with multiple possibilities but this is understandable as they have lost a member of the family.

It could be explained as group think to an extent, with no member of the family wanting to cause conflict with the others by rationalizing and voicing any kind of opinion that the girl took her own life.

The shoes being taken off is relatively easy to explain. People in a poor state of mind do things like that.

When using logic, all evidence points to a spur of the moment suicide.

May she Rest In Peace.

If the shoe was on the other foot and this was the more typical case of a male killing his female partner then it would certainly not have been framed more differently.

Victim shaming throughout the entire episode, never would this have been possible if the perpetrator was male and the victim female.

All along when listening to family and friends and supporters I was saying outloud "deluded". How they expected what was very obviously a murder to be squashed was just stretching reality.. until, it actually happened and Fri's murder gets overturned, without as much as a retrial.

Utterly flabaghasted and genuinely intensely sceptical of the British justice system at this point.

If roles had been reversed and the male had come home at 5am having been out drinking, got into an argument with his girlfriend, shook off a relatively minor attack which caused such insignificant injuries they didn't feature in the trial, then took out a knife and stabbed her to death, then proceeded to lie that someone else had done the stabbing and attempted to hide the knife then HE would be getting life with 20-30 years for killing HER and no one would bat an eyelid.

Not 13 years then get out of jail after 7 because he claims he was victim of an abusive relationship. Unthinkable.

This is equality in reverse. Very very worrying that a female can take a man's life and literally get away with murder because she retrospectively claims domestic abuse. Something is very wrong with this and needs to change.

Dicaprio is unbelievably believable.

Only he can pull off acting whilst acting so perfectly.

At no point do we question any of his lines, actions or motives. He is brilliant from start to finish.

The subtlety with which he plays the scene where he is all but caught in the hotel room and convinces the FBI agent that he is secret service is truly a virtuoso performance, a scene for the ages which can be enjoyed aside from the film over and over again.

The problem with this film is that we are asked too hard to accept certain storylines. The major one being why, having fled the toilet of the plane and escaped on the runway, would Frank go directly to his mothers house?

That storyline just doesn't fit with the build up of his character and adds to the overall hastily written ending.

It's one of the few films that could have done with being 20-30 minutes longer.

There was no reason, having built the story up so carefully, to carelessly throw the suspense away with a hap hazard ending which does nothing other than tie up loose ends.

A real anti climax and overly disappointing ending to what was previously developing into a masterclass.