My jaded view of Ashton Kutcher was put to the test when I went to see "The Butterfly Effect." Coming in, I hated the way Kutcher reminded me of the anonymous guy who gets the last scone, with his goofy grin and mocking laugh. I sure would like to slap Ashton around for a while.
It's for this reason that it genuinely pains me to say that I enjoyed "The Butterfly Effect." Congrats, Ashton.You kept me in the seat for those 113 minutes, when I could have easily spent the time color-coding my Nintendo games.
The film is about Evan (Kutcher), a 20-something who has a mysterious brain condition that causes him to blackout in stressful situations. To stifle these blackouts, he keeps journals that, upon rediscovery years later, allow him to travel back in time to the moment he wrote about. He tries to change his past with this newfound ability, and each change results in a drastically different reality.
It's a good idea for a film, but it worked much better in "Donnie Darko" and "Sliders" (the sci-fi Jerry O'Connell TV show). Both explored the themes of cause-and-effect and alternate realities with more style and intelligence. However, the sci-fi geek in me puts down his "Klingon Phrases" book and comes out to play "Dungeons and Dragons" with Kutcher.
What really drives this film is my desire to see what new hairstyle and outfit Kutcher will be wearing in his next reality (we see a lovely arc from Î80s kid to Old Navy college boy and, finally, mulleted schizophrenic).
One of the most amusing characters is Thumper, played by Ethan Suplee of "Mallrats" fame. Suplee plays a morbidly obese goth college kid who is constantly bedding slutty girls clad in chains and leather. His witticisms and erotic appeal are such that there may be a new trend in eyeliner and trench coats at the Big and Tall stores.
This is the second film from Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber, who brought us fine cinema like "Final Destination 2." That grows obvious after a few minutes, because this is first and foremost a teen movie; while it dabbles in interesting concepts, it doesn't shy away from gratuitous breast shots.
But please don't think that the film is devoid of a message or two. We learn the dangers of playing with firecrackers when Kutcher goes back to save a woman and her child from being exposed to a blast. Kutcher ends up an amputee, with his best friend banging his girlfriend and his mom in the cancer ward.
In essence, the film is worth seeing because it steals from an intelligent idea. If you're already an Ashton Kutcher fan, the lack of originality and substance really won't bother you. You might even have a new film in your top 10.