MONDAY MOVIE REVIEW- Looper
It's the year 2042, and time travel hasn't been invented yet. But 30 years in the future, it will be. After being instantly outlawed, time travel is used solely by the mob, who send people back in time to be killed and disposed of by Loopers. Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is one of these Loopers. Then one day, the person he is sent to kill looks all too familiar. It's him from the future. He hesitates just one moment, and his future self (Bruce Willis) manages to escapes. Now Joe must find his target or suffer a fate worse than death.
The most interesting thing about Looper is it's not the movie you'd expect. The attention grabbing trailers make it seem like a chase movie, and it's true that it has elements of that, but the deeper you get into the story, the more things change. Since I really enjoyed being surprised by this movie, I'm not going to get too into the details of the overall story. What I will do is let you know about a few things about this film that really struck me, and I think elevate this film from typical fall-movie fare to something more exceptional.
Plotting- Looper goes into different territory than you'd expect from watching the trailer, but it's clear that a great amount of attention has gone into planning every development, as so much in this movie is foreshadowed expertly. After seeing this film, my fiance and I discussed this, at how even a seemingly throw away piece of dialogue ended up having greater significance later on. To me, this is an example of really good storytelling. It's easy to throw in a twist, but in order for it to be truly effective, that twist needs to be set up properly. It needs to make the audience go “oh!” in realization. Writer director Rain Johonson clearly understands this.
The Cast- My main reason for going into this film was due to a recent interest in Joseph Gordon-Levitt. So far, I've only seen him in supporting roles, so I was curious to see how he would fare as the star. The answer is, exceptionally well. I read that in order to prepare for this role, Gordon-Levitt studied several recent films starring Bruce Willis in order to accurately imitate the legendary actor's style. This really pays off. I completely bought the fact that these two different actors could be playing the same person. It's true that Gordon-Levitt is assisted somewhat by contacts and prosthetics, but he also manages to really nail Willis's facial ticks and intonation. This is really obvious with his voice overs. At the same time, Gordon-Levitt is not merely playing a clone of Willis. These are two men who have had different life experiences (or perhaps in the case of future Joe, just more of them) and both actors do a really good job with this. I also found myself rather impressed with Willis's performance. For some reason, I often forget he is not just an action star and can actually act. Other actors worth nothing are Emily Blunt, who gives quite a dynamic performance. But it's child actor Pierce Gagnon who really steals the show. Not many people can hold their own among strong performers such as Gordon-Leavitt, Willis, and Blunt, never mind someone who still has a mouth full of baby teeth.
Mise-en-scene- Besides a few snippets in Joe's voice overs, we don't learn too much about this sci-fi universe from our characters. Where we end up filling the blanks is visually. While watching Looper, I kept on finding my attention grabbed by a random prop, piece of the set, or costume. Despite the fact that this book takes place in the future, we see old fashioned watches, and piles of papers strewn across a work desk instead of a computer. Hell, Joe uses a phone book in one of the scenes. These aspects are peppered with more futuristic elements, such as hover bikes, to make it obvious that we're still in the future, but it's obvious from the droves of poor people on the streets to the inclusion of phone books that we have not progressed in this future as much as regressed. It also gives the film a dusky, gritty atmosphere that gives it a really well defined look.
Final Thoughts- Thanks to the well plotted script, all around top notch acting, and overall attention to detail, Looper is better than you'd expect from your typical fall movie. Personally, I found the pacing to be a bit uneven, but these aspects are easy to overlook given the superior end result. Four and a half stars.