Looper

Looper is going to make you think.  So, movie fans, brain-stress alert!  Why?  Well, the story centers on time travel in a very novel sort of way!

I must begin this review by giving a mild SPOILER warning.  I am usually quite cautious about giving away too much, but I believe I can help readers enjoy the film more if I put in more than my usual two cents.

My daughter, a philosophy prof who just happens to teach courses on time and space, cautioned me and declared that I, being of close-to-senile-mental function and not nearly as well informed on time travel concepts, might well misconstrue the story.  SO, yet another CAVEAT:  My opinion may well be wrong!

Haha!  Yes, sports fans, it's that kind of movie. Very, very convoluted and quite open to discussion.  Well, here goes!

First off, Gordon G-L and Bruce Willis are one and the same person. Gordon's character is the younger version in today's time, and Bruce's character is the grown-up character in future time.  Via time travel, the two meet, and young/old protagonist/s must have a meeting of the minds lest they kill each other!

You see, they are assassins.

Well, not assassins in the common understanding of the word.  The younger man, Gordon G-L, is paid to kill fellow assassins who have had a good life of killing, and now, grown men of the future, are being sent back to face their maker thirty years earlier.

Huh?  Hahahaha.  Exactly.  Weird.  The young assassin shoots the older, forcibly "retired" assassins, in the present, so the future powers-that-be won't have to worry about messy things like bodies.  In exchange for this service of dubious ethical worth, the young assassin gets blocks of gold.

Fine and dandy.

BUT:  What if the young assassin suddenly finds himself having to shoot the older version of himself????

Ouch!  Big problem.

Add to this already wildly imaginative story a few other plotlines:  A kid today who will turn into the world's worst super bad guy tomorrow must be found and eliminated.  Easier said than done.  The kid has super powers a la little Drew Barrymore in Firestarter.  When the boy gets upset, he can make folks float!  Wait, there's more.  Little evil boy's mother, played by the talented Emily Blunt, will protect her boy at all costs....even if she can't control his madness.

What a delightful mish-mosh!  Be sure to catch the moral dilemma:  young/old killer/s need to kill the child now to save the future world, yet younger version of assassin says no to killing the kid and older version of assassin says yes. Big conflict!   Hmmmm.......

All of the story makes sense to crazy time-thinkers like me ....until the end, when, in an effort to create an effective denouement, the writers commit a cardinal time-travel movie sin:  time paradox.

The paradox is simple to understand: if you go back and accidentally run over your grandfather, your parents don't exist and neither do you.  But what about the life you have just been leading?   And if you don't exist, how can you do in good ol' grandpa?

OK, I will say nothing more about the pathetically weak ending which, to me, disappointed all the more since most of the other time-travel issues had been resolved.

But I must recommend that my esteeemed readers RUN out and see this film.  SUSPEND your disbelief and enjoy!  It's truly one of a kind.  And among time-travel stories, it really pushes the envelope in a sometimes logical sort of way.

A+++