re:mote voices

Title: The Butterfly Effect
Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Melora Walters, Amy Smart, Elden Henson, William Lee Scott, Eric Stoltz
Director: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber

Even from the trailers one would get the impression that The Butterfly Effect is coming off the success of Donnie Darko – though some will probably find that they enjoy this film more, as in the end it has less ambiguity and a clearer resolution than Darko did.

Like Darko, The Butterfly Effect deals with a certain level of abstract thought, and to a degree a similarity in a kind of time travel/changing events manner. Evan as a child had a number of blackouts, during which bad things seem to have happened, which he has managed to forget altogether. We follow his growth as a 7 year old, 13 year old, and then as a 20 year old student, seeing the events, to some degree, which he is failing to recall. Hitting 20 he has successfully gone 7 years without a blackout, but in the process of celebrating this he suddenly gets a view into one of those blackouts, and what they were hiding.

This sets Evan on the path to trying to understand what really happened back then, and how this ties in with the reasons why his father was institutionalised. Unfortunately in the process he has opened some old wounds, and his childhood girlfriend ends up killing herself. Something about the way he has looked into the blackout however makes Evan realise that somehow he can actually go back to those events, and if he can do that maybe he can make thinks right? Which is what he sets out to do, unfortunately every step seems to make things worse, mirroring the idea of the title, and the quote at the start of the film – the idea that a small action can have a big effect, following the principles of chaos theory and that a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world can cause a tornado in an other.

Ashton Kutcher surprises to some degree as the grown up role of Evan, coming across reasonably well as the central character. Though the strength of The Butterfly Effect really comes from the supporting cast, as the character of Evan is essentially a constant, regardless of the changes in the environment around him. Throughout the film there are three other important characters – Kaylee, Tommy and Lenny. In the original set of events, Kaylee and Evan are abused by Kaylee’s father, and come to be close as a result, while Kaylee’s brother is increasingly violent and resentful of Evan’s attention towards his sister, leaving Lenny as witness to the more horrific events that surround the group. Through the film we see the real shifts in each of these characters – Kaylee is a clumsy waitress, a sorority girl, a crack whore… Tommy is a mechanic, a violent psychotic, a born again Christian… Lenny is a recluse, a catatonic mental patient, a normal student…

Through out the film there are some nice touches in terms of plot and character development that keep the film going. There are times the dialogue is perhaps a little suspect, especially when the 20 year old Evan has gone back to being a 7 year old and is speaking through his mouth. Plot wise it is reasonably tight, especially for a Hollywood film, though like any of these kind of things there is a definite scope for arguing plot holes and the in and out of the idea. Still, a decent film, and a nice dose of weird potential.