Looper [MA]

The year is 2044 and in thirty years time time-travel will be invented, but it will be illegal and used only on the black market by the worlds most renown criminals. When the crims want someone gone, they will catch them and send them back 30 years where a hired assassin, like Joe, will be waiting to do what’s necessary. For Joe, life is good until the day when it gets decided to close the loop and Joe’s future self is sent back for assassination. Hesitating for just one second, Joe misses the mark and his future self escapes, thus setting a chain of events in motion that will alter more that just his own life. 

Written and directed by Rian Johnson, this science fiction/action/thriller is a most astounding piece of work and an excellent movie to come out of 2012. It’s affords both a great adrenaline rush and also a fantastic bout of thought provocation as well as the occasional bouts of horror and suspense. It also boasts excellent performances from all its cast however, despite the big-name list, the show really belongs to Pierce Gagnon who plays a little telekinetic boy whose life the story is inadvertently centred around. It’s a fantastic story to say the least: a wholly wonderful and original thought-provoking concept, I haven’t been so impressed with a time-themed story since In Time. 

The year is 2044 and in thirty years time time-travel will be invented, but it will be illegal and used only on the black market by the worlds most renown criminals. When the crims want someone gone, they will catch them and send them back 30 years where a hired assassin, like Joe, will be waiting to do what’s necessary. For Joe, life is good until the day when it gets decided to close the loop and Joe’s future self is sent back for assassination. Hesitating for just one second, Joe misses the mark and his future self escapes, thus setting a chain of events in motion that will alter more that just his own life.

As I’ve already established, the story is brilliant! It’s a wonderful science fiction/thriller that encompasses various levels of adrenaline-pinching action, emotional drama, and even some Carrie-esque horror. You know when something is a good piece of writing when it suggests and plants thoughts about certain things in your mind and then causes you to probe deeper and deeper into the far corners of that concept, uncovering all possibilities and progressions. Time-travel stories all tend to do that naturally, but it is possible to have a boring and predictable time-travel story that doesn’t entice you to poke and probe. Looper is the complete opposite of one these stories. Right from the very first frame, your mind is abuzz with questions and queries, some of which the film answers with its overdubbed narration, which makes this movie good for those in the audience who have trouble keeping up with such complex plots, and others that you just either let lie or answer yourself. That is what a good time-travel story does: gets you to ask and answer your own questions, making you feel good and smart in the process. 

Special applause has to go to Joseph Gordon-Levitt who stars as young Joe. You can’t hide whether you’re a good or bad actor when you play a role that precursors/is the same role, played by another actor. To clarify, because that sentence probably didn’t make any sense at all, Joseph plays the role of Young Joe and Bruce Willis plays the role of Old Joe and Joseph delivered a performance that was so depicting of Bruce Willis is was amazing. His way of speaking and mannerisms were absolutely spot on and I tip my hat to you Joseph! Love your work! 

Starring Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Noah Segen, Piper Perabo, Traci Thoms, and Jeff Daniels, Looper is a fantastic movie packed with action, science fiction, violence, and drama. I was captivated from the first frame and would highly recommend that you go down to your local Blockbuster and get out a copy. It’s wonderful!