I find the entire idea of chaos theory (layman's definition, of course, the mathematical definitions make my eyes glaze over) fascinating. That one small action can cause a virtual cascade of reactions eventually resulting in something enormous is a fun thought to consider. What would happen if I decided not to send that letter? Or said hello to that person on the street? Or any of the other ten thousand things we do in a day? Do they all matter? Do they all cause ripples of reactions? Or are some dead ends that simply stop where they start? I love it. Too bad it has very little to do with the film The Butterfly Effect, which purports to be based on the theory.

Now don't assume right off the bat that this means I hate the film, for, in fact, I don't hate it at all. I'm just saying that the title is misleading, particularly when combined with the definition of chaos theory that opens the film. What The Butterfly Effect really is about is time travel. That's where the interest lies, in what happens when you change history.

The film doesn't jump right in and start mucking with the space time continuum though (I do so love being able to throw a Star Trek term into the mix. It pleases my inner nerd). We begin with the story of Evan. At age seven, Evan is beginning to experience some blackouts, as well as some troubles in school. His mother is understandably concerned and we get some cryptic information from her, as well as a doctor, about Evan's father having suffered something similar. His mother is terrified that her son may be following in his father's path. Evan has a good friend in Kayleigh, who has a father (Eric Stoltz), something which Evan desperately envies. For a while. It turns out that Kayleigh's father is not in the least enviable, and is, in fact, the one who triggers Evan's first really major blackout.

From here we jump ahead to Evan at thirteen. Awkward, geeky thirteen. The casting director (Carmen Cuba) should be applauded for finding and hiring teenagers who look and move and act like teenagers instead of twenty five year old models. You can feel these kids awkwardness with themselves and almost hear Evan's voice cracking as he participates in a prank that goes terribly wrong, ending in yet another blackout, as well as more frighteningly tangible consequences.

Once again we skip forward. Now Evan is twenty (Aston Kutcher finally appears as our lead), in college, and hasn't had a blackout since that fateful prank. He's fascinated by memory and makes it a focus of his studies. It is in his own memory that the crux of the story lies. Unfortunately, he still doesn't remember any of the events that happened during his blackouts. His memory is jogged by a chance reading of an old journal, bringing back full recollection in frighteningly vivid detail. So vivid, in fact, that it may not be a mere memory, but something far more potent, and far more dangerous.

It seems like I've written a whole lot about the plot, here. This points up one of the flaws in the film. The set up takes a loooong time. By the time Evan realizes that his journals trigger more than your everyday recollections, we've spent a great deal of time with him. On one level I understand why the filmmakers choose to spend so much time here. First, it's not a simple situation to set up. It's going to require some time and some exposition to put the pieces in place for the movie to play out in the end. Secondly, we need to like Evan. We need to like the Evan we meet in those first college scenes. It's important that we want Evan as he is, not some other version of him. These are excellent reasons to take one's time when introducing both the story and the character. But it doesn't change the fact that it makes the film drag through the first half. This is made all the more evident by the increase in pace through the second half. What we need here is a little more of an even pace so that we don't feel like we're dragging the first half behind us and being dragged behind the second half.

So why is this film not really about chaos theory? Because the story isn't about how one small thing effects many other things, leading to something larger. As Evan discovers a power that he does indeed share with his father, the story does look at how one thing affects others. But it's never a small thing; it's always a huge thing. Each event that Evan recalls from reading his journals is a point of major crisis in his life or that of his family and friends. To make any of these things different in some way will indeed change lots of things - there are many people involved, none of the changes is particularly surprising or unforeseeable. As he spirals out of control with his efforts to use his ability for the good of others, particularly Kayleigh (played as an adult by Amy Smart), he isn't a butterfly, he's already a tsunami. Throw in the confounding effect of examining a change in history, and the theory is diluted. Not a big deal, but when the movie is named for a theory it doesn't really examine, it makes for a fine excuse for a little tangent.

Mixed up theories notwithstanding, The Butterfly Effect stands up remarkably well as a psychological/supernatural thriller. After the relatively slow start, the pace picks up as Evan begins burning his own bridges and limiting his abilities time and time again. The story that we get in the first half begins to pull together as we run the maze that is the conundrum of time travel. Writers J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress manage to pick up all the pieces and put them in some semblance of order, which is really quite a feat when the story they set out to tell is this complicated. What starts out confusing is generally well explained by the end, but you need to pay attention. We don't get a lot of "Changing History For Dummies" dialogue out of the characters, we need to pick out the places where holes are closed and events explained.

The character of Evan remains likable, lending credence to the wisdom of that slow start (if not to its absolute success as a film device). We do like him, we do want him to succeed, it is scary as he gets further and further closed into a box of his own making. Ashton Kutcher does a good job with the role, as well. Make no mistake; this performance does not mark his blazing entrance into the world of elite actors, but he acquits himself admirably. He doesn't break character, keeping up with the frantic changes his character undergoes as the film picks up speed. Some of his line delivery is stilted, and some of his facial expression, which becomes important, looks awkward, but in general he does well. The other characters are really very peripheral. Amy Smart as Kayleigh is fine, but nothing special, Melora Walters as Evan's mother is the same. Callum Keith Rennie stands out in his small role as Jason, Evan's father. He brings a creepy intensity to his one scene that is very effective. Eric Stoltz is, as usual, excellent. His character is a total creep, but Stoltz does a wonderful job bringing that to the screen in only a few brief scenes.

The effects are a little questionable. As Evan sinks into his journal induced memories, we get a sort of wiggly wobbly effect that is far too reminiscent of a "Wayne's World" skit. It doesn't ruin the movie, but it is a little laughable, which I doubt is what the filmmakers were going for.

The Butterfly Effect is a movie that has a lot of places to nitpick. A lot of little and not so little flaws crisscross the entire production. This is, in part, probably due to the fact that the story they're telling is complicated. There are simply a lot of places to go wrong. The only flaw that affects the end result is the pacing, which is distracting despite any good that comes from the slow start. The others, even the fact that the movie isn't really about chaos effect, are all more quibbles than anything else. This is a supernatural thriller, and as such does require an extremely high level of suspension of disbelief. Without that, the entire film will feel ludicrous. But that's the nature of most films involving the paranormal. Put your rational self high on a shelf here and just enjoy the ride. Three and a half stars.






* Note: This film is available on DVD with the director's cut included. For those who saw the film and liked it until what felt like a weak ending, I encourage you to seek out this version. The director's cut has a completely different final ten minutes, and a far more satisfying ten minutes, in my opinion. It's absolutely worth a look.


Recommended:
Yes