If from 2004’s The Butterfly Effect you expect another silly Ashton Kutcher role like in Dude, Where’s My Car? and Just Married, you will be understandably upset that it appeals, if at all, to one’s intellectual side in a convoluted way. I’m pretty sure that is the effect producer and lead actor Kutcher was going for, but the effect on me was clearly depressing and disturbing. Its effect on you, especially the Director’s Cut, could be even more pronounced if you’re somewhat suicidal and/or clinically depressed. This over two-hour movie, you see, bases itself on the Chaos Theory where one event can change everything unpredictably. Note that last word to appreciate this movie.

From the shoddy directors and writers of Final Destination 2, Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber, we’re again in the grips of a violent thriller where time is of the essence. At first it’s a straight-forward story of a young boy who experiences traumatic events that cause him to blackout during them and not be aware of what he’s doing. No, he’s not demon-possessed and a murderer, hehe. Rather, this boy, Evan, has inherited a disease that causes brain hemorraging and bloody noses at the same time when he’s really stressed out. I won’t go into how traumatic the events were, except to say they include a pedophile, a bombed-up mother and babe, a murderous father in the asylum who is killed in front of him and a burned-up pet dog. It isn’t until he’s in college studying memory assimilation that he discovers his curse from the disease: he can physically travel back through his life to a certain time by reading what he has written about it in his journals (luckily this occasions only an earthquake-like effect and not a far-out spiraling tunnel effect).

This curse, thought a gift for most of the movie, comes with the ability to remember his future while going into his past, so he naturally decides to change his and his loved ones’ futures by changing their past. His good intentions, however, over and over again lead to much worse consequences for this poor, guilty-feeling guy, played in college by Kutcher and John Patrick Amedon before that. It gets to the point that he uses his ability to escape from prison for murder and another time from a horrifying life of severe disability. He desperately wants a life with the girl he loves (played by Amy Smart), but her childhood was traumatized along with him, her jealous brother and a sickly friend. How can he make their lives perfect with all the variables?


The Hmm... Factor

Like many of you, I’ve sometimes wondered what my life would be like now if such-and-such hadn’t happened to me. The fantasy that my life and perhaps others’ lives would be much happier certainly has crossed my mind as it did the beleagured hero of The Butterfly Effect. Childhood memories of painful events can do much harm to our self-esteem and as adults we may blame our pasts for our problems today. After watching the Director’s Cut and Theatrical Release versions of this movie, I believe the latter is the only version that shows our hero ultimately learning from his mistakes and going on with his life, a good example for all of us who have been stuck in the devastating memories of our past.

Maybe I just gave away too much of the movie, but you would understand if you saw the shocking ending of the Director’s Cut. I guess it could be considered beautiful in a weird way, which is how the directors comment on it in the special features of the DVD, but it really left me unsatisfied and feeling cheated of an ending more in sync with the rest of the movie.


Final Thoughts

I hadn’t been very impressed with Ashton Kutcher before, but here he does a pretty decent job conveying the frustration, disorientation and optimistic stubbornness, then suicidal grief, of his role. Some of you will fawn over his good looks, especially his near-nakedness in one scene. His chemistry with Amy Smart (Rat Race, Starsky and Hutch) was convincing enough because of intense, though not witty, dialogue and intense gazes. Melora Walters as Evan’s worried mother and Eric Stoltz as the pedophile contribute to the tension like the rest of the cast, although humor pops up once in a while with regards to college dorm life. One co-ed shows off her just-showered body.

When I watched The Butterfly Effect in the Director’s Cut version with a friend, he kept groaning that this is so sad and I don’t know if I can take more of this. It’s no date movie or one to entertain you with a happy, love-conquers-all message. It requires concentration constantly and still you’ll be as mixed-up as the hero half of the time, wondering how he got out of prison when he came back from his past and why he’s still alive and running around when his brain is so damaged and just a bunch of things.

I admit a preference for less disturbing, thought-provoking movies. One can argue that the Theatrical Release version’s ending isn’t entirely depressing, that it’s good to move on, but on the whole the movie is overwhelmingly tragic and it’s all our hero’s fault, according to all his friends. I’m sure some of you will find this a fascinating, psychological study, which it is for a while, but then it keeps throwing tragedy at us like a whirlwind and could make a depressed person question the value of his life. That’s not a good thing. Definitely keep the kids away, too! The Butterfly Effect is a painful experience and I just can’t recommend it to friends.


Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age