Time travel. Any writer daring to dabble in this department has their work cut out for them. Every action has a reaction, and so on and so forth. So, when reactions to things start happening before the actions that cause them, well - you get the picture. Looper is full of these sorts of moments and they're moments that wouldn't make sense anywhere else, moments that'd have you chucking popcorn at the screen in utter frustration. But here, it's more of a 'no questions asked' affair. The film doesn't promise any answers to the questions we might have and it never tries to guess what we're thinking. It gives us just as much info as we need to understand the story rather than the science because, after all, everybody knows a good story makes a fab movie.
A good story and great characters, that is. In those respects, Looper is very 'Lost-y'. The complicated, mind-boggling and mostly bullshitty sciencey side of what you're watching is in the background - the characters and their stories are what takes centre stage here. Therefore, it's quite a relief that these characters are interesting and their stories are complex and twisty and turny and fresh. Fresh, as in 'new'. Looper's being described as this decade's 'The Matrix' or 'very similar to Inception' and to be fair, it's neither of those things. It is, however, a new idea. We shan't be getting into the whole 'new ideas don't exist any more' debate, but Looper is a mish-mash of shizzle that's never been mished or mashed quite so wonderfully together before now. That's why people are instantly comparing it to the last newest thing they saw.
That said, Looper's the kind of film that sometimes risks getting too big for its boots. Whenever a potential plot hole moment comes along, the characters insist that it's pointless talking about and that it'll only 'fry their brains'. This is probably true, for them. They talk about time travel in a way that's realistic, if it ever existed. But for us, it's a little bit annoying on two levels as we're fascinated by the future depicted (it's completely convincing and possible-looking), and we're also intrigued by what's happening to Joe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and his old self, Bruce Willis. Which means, although we'd like to properly understand their dilemma, we know we cannot expect them to have a conversation that genuinely wouldn't take place in their world. It's unfair, but sod it. We're forced to just get on with it because the story keeps marching forward. And this is where its stacks of self confidence pays off.
 |
| Bruce Willis gets to kick copious amounts of ass, as you've come to expect |
Pulp Fiction was a classic. It was strange, very strange, and it went off on tangents you didn't expect. But, these tangents all somehow had a purpose and contributed to the main story - it made everything seem bigger in scale, more important than it ever really was. Looper does the same. One minute we're following one bloke's story, the next we're flipping it round, restarting, or veering off and focusing on some random woman instead - right in the damn middle of the movie, which is a tad unpredictable. A lot of this chopping and changing requires you to use your brain, much to the frustration of those sat around you who've most likely shown up for some cool Transformers-esque running about with guns because something to do with science fiction is about to blow up. There's not even a pair of tits here to help them reach the finish line. All of this means that it's a much smarter movie than most of the crap that's stuck up on the big screen these days. A most welcome change.
 |
| "What the hell happened to your eyebrows?" |
It's not too complicated though, thanks to a voiceover from Joe early on, explaining a few key points before we're thrown into the thick of it. You've nothing to worry about in terms of 'loopy' time travelling story telling because it only ever gets about knee-deep before throwing its hands up, realising that if it goes any deeper it'll drown. While it's advised you don't expect anything utterly groundbreaking, it's also worth remembering not to go and see it imagining you'll get to put your feet up and watch Colin Farrell jump off tall buildings while enjoying an icy beverage. (There are quite a few lens flares though.) You'll have to think a lot, but you'll feel better for it on the other end. Logically none of it would happen, but it gets top marks for trying to be different and having the confidence to just do what it does without a care in the world.
★★★★☆
Roo