The movie starts with JGL narrating a captivating introduction (I sneezed and realized I was sitting in a movie theater) to the gritty and realistic, dystopian future where firearms are carried freely and Paul Dano rides a crappy rocket bike.
Now, I'll be the first to tell you that we NEED movies like Back to the Future and Bill and Ted, but Looper is exactly the way time travel movies should be done. It uses it as a way to tell a unique and compelling narrative, making it a refreshingly original story.
Men in Black 3 tackled time-traveling earlier this year and it's surprisingly pretty solid; a linear story that doesn't change, even with the interference of characters from the future. Looper is also linear, and it's a mess. Since we don't have Doc Brown screaming at us about disrupting the space-time continuum, we get to see an interaction of a past and future self. One line of dialogue justifies the paradox and introduces us to some interesting story-telling elements. Regardless of the myriads of questions this plagues, we put them aside for the sake of enjoying the movie, understanding that it's all a means to tell a story.
The fact that we believe Gordon-Levitt and Willis to be the same person... is impressive. At the same time, though, the characters they play are very different people. Pulling that off is a juggling act that takes some writing balls and acting balls. Gordon-Levitt put a lot of effort in creating a younger version of the Bruce Willis we know and it pays off tremendously. We never doubt that they're the same guy, it never takes you out of the movie and allows you to keep focus on the story.
Rather than centering on the relationship between the main character Joe's past and future self, the film carries much larger themes and surprises you with a vivid conclusion with meaning and morals. The heartfelt ending and credit song make the movie feel satisfyingly more indie than Hollywood.
Jeff Daniels is great as the mob boss "... Go to China. I'm from the future. I know these things."
Emily Blunt is very convincing as a southern girl. I would have never guessed she was born and raised in England.
And Looper uses Mr. Willis very, very well. There's nothing quite like seeing him in his element, firing two P90's from the hip.
The Bottom Line:
The Kid, Twelve Monkeys, and now Looper, we need a movie called Crisis of Multiple Bruce Willis' to make sense of it all. Looper uses time travel, not as a gimmick, but as a tool to tell an interesting, character driven story. It's instantly one of the best time travels movies and it's by far one of the most exhilarating movies of the year.
