Date: 2004
Director: Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber
Actors/Characters: Ashton Kutcher/ Evan, Melora Walters/ Andrea, Amy Smart/ Kayleigh, Elden Henson/ Lenny, William Lee Scott/ Tommy, John Patrick Amedori/ Evan at 13, Irina Gorovaia/ Kayleigh at 13, Kevin G. Schmidt/ Lenny at 13, Jesse James/ Tommy at 13, Logan Lerman/ Evan at 7, Sarah Widdows/ Kayleigh at 7, Jake Kaese/ Lenny at 7, Cameron Bright/ Tommy at 7
Summary: Evan Treborn suffers blackouts during significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life by reading his journal.
Review
Not enough people have seen this film, not many films are written and directed as intricately and as cleverly as The Butterfly Effect. Personally I think this film is utter genius.
The plot is so brilliant. The story follows Evan- a man who has suppressed traumatic events from his past in the form of blackouts, he has written diaries throughout his entire life in order to remember things and as he gets older he discovers a way to time travel back into his memories and recover what he has lost. Under the surface this story is truly about the human desire to right past wrongs and erase past mistakes. The results of Evan's time travelling are a warning and a message that everything in life has a consequence ( a nod to the film's title ). I really enjoyed this deeper meaning as I myself believe in a similar philosophy.
I have seen many time travel films over the years and this film had a totally different take on the concept. I really enjoyed the inventiveness of the time travel and how it was intwined into the narrative. I thought the twist on Evan's blackouts actually being caused by the time travel was extremely clever also. The film's exposition was highly relevant to the time travel and I loved how so many pivotal moments happened within Evan's childhood that he went back to change. The fact that so many impressionable events happened so early in Evan, Kayleigh, Tommy and Lenny's lives seemed to be symbolic of the nature/ nurture debate and I liked how slight alterations could have a massive impact on the future lives of the characters particularly Tommy.
The film dealt with a wide range of ages from impressionable seven year olds to established adults. The casting of the film increased its impressiveness, having such young actors involved can often decrease a film's success as finding credible and impressive young actors can be challenging however this film's cast ( especially the child actors) were remarkable. The type casting between actors was also superb.
The film's grittiness and thrilling nature was excellent. The scenes during Evan's childhood for example the video tape scene and the scene in the woods in which Evan's dog was killed were both brilliant especially since such young actors were involved in them- it made the scenes even more shocking and appalling.
The characters in this film were a huge part I think seeing what motivated characters and provoked them to act a certain way or do certain things was really interesting. Tommy was fascinating to watch and I enjoyed watching how much has changed based on past events.
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