Time travel is a concept that, when used in any type of storytelling, persuades the audience to pay close attention in order to piece together the concept's logic like a jigsaw puzzle. Whenever the premise is used in film, books or television, the plots that time travel is involved in tend to differ, so the rules of time travel in each story will differ as well. With films like Back to the Future, 12 Monkeys, The Time Traveler's Wife (also a novel) and last summer's Men in Black 3, the viewer can see how filmmakers often find various ways to use time travel in their narratives.
Writer and director Rian Johnson brings his own contribution to time travel in his futuristic drama, Looper. By doing so, he exemplifies that there are still new ways to use time travel in film. In his story, Johnson's mark on the subject involves hired killers. With his vision of a gloomy future, intriguing rules for loopers, and the increasing tension between the main character's present self and future self, the film explores the great lengths and sacrifices that one will go through to make sure he will live the life he wants.
In 2044, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) works as a "looper," which is a hired assassin. Time travel has been invented in 2074, but is deemed illegal. Crime bosses use it in secret to send those that they want killed back to 2044 to be killed by the loopers, who then secretly dispose of the bodies. When Joe's future self (Bruce Willis) arrives to him as his next assignment, the older Joe knocks out his younger self and flees. Joe soon has to figure out what it is that his future self has set out to accomplish in the present day.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt displays his character as one who never truly feels optimistic about his life, hardly ever cracking a smile during the film. His attitude reflects the bleakness of the society around him. With how good he is at his job and how familiar he is of his urban surroundings, Joe comes off as one of those hard-nosed cops who is tough, but quietly so. While occasionally trying to escape the harsh realities that come with being a hired killer, he takes an eye-dropping club drug regularly and frequents the popular night scene when he's off the clock. As he narrates parts of the story, the viewer can detect a hint of melancholy in his voice. But, within the gloom of his character is a bit of dreamer; he's learning French with the determination to move to Paris someday. It gives the viewer some hope for his character. These two sides of him come together in the first scene as he studies French as the camera pans around him as he waits for, and then kills, his latest assignment.
Bruce Willis still has an abundance of action-star energy. His toughness of character and placement in a time-travel situation recall his role in Terry Gilliam's sci-fi time-bender 12 Monkeys. As with the latter role, there is more to Willis' character than sheer brute force. There are several flashbacks offered about his character, and through them, the audience learns of his tragic loss in the future and his desperate mission to reverse the outcome. It's fortunate for this film that depth of character carries over from Joe's present self to his future self, seeing as they are, basically, the same person.
There is a feeling in the duration of the movie that these killers are only good at what they do, and nothing else. This is seen in the interaction between the loopers' boss, Abe (Jeff Daniels) and one of his loopers, Kid Blue (Noah Segan). The scenes with them together display a sort of father-son relationship as Kid Blue constantly wants to impress his boss as a looper because his job is all he has, even though it is clear that Joe has the better skills and is favored more by Abe. Although the present Joe and future Joe aren't father and son, the vibe of different generations is there in their relationship. They both have conflicting views on Willis' character making a drastic change to the present that will fix his future for the better; and, not to give anything away, but this part of the story carries some interesting echoes of Terminator 2.
One clever aspect of the past, present and future mixing together is the way how the set designs are constructed. While the city holds a futuristic and dystopian look, other places in the film, such as the diner that Joe frequents and the farmhouse where he meets an ally in Sara (Emily Blunt), look more old-fashioned. The differences in the appearance of each of these set pieces play with the concept of time with how the past, present and future meet in the film.
The screenplay by the director takes a look at free will and the choices that its characters make that will either change the future for better or worse, as well as how the elements from the three concepts of time interact with each other. His use of voiceover narration by Joe doesn't last for the whole movie. It's simply just used in the first couple of scenes a few times so Joe can describe to the viewer the fascinating rules of loopers and the deterioration of society. The one problem is that the plot twist becomes predictable about a half hour before the ending.
Rian Johnson has made an effective, original and stylish sci-fi thriller. He takes the idea of time travel and creates a new and exciting use out of it. And, in the middle of the action, he's able to extract emotional performances from his leads. This being Johnson's first mainstream film, he shows that he doesn't have to submit to making a big-budget action picture to win over audiences once he steps into mainstream. He can engage us with his story, characters and strange visuals.
Time travel is a crime in Looper, but it as sure as ever offers a good time at the movies.
Final grade: A-
No comments:
Post a Comment