Four children, Evan, Andrea, Lenny, and Tommy, have a horrendous childhood filled with murder, molestation, mental breakdowns, and general cruelty. Evan (Ashton Kutcher) blacks out during many of the worst moments. As a college student, he finds that he can go back in time to the blacked out periods, and “fix” the past, but each change has horrible consequences.
Ray Bradbury’s A Sound of Thunder covered this story; in his version, a time traveler accidentally kills a butterfly, changing the world in unforeseen ways. The Butterfly Effect adds very little conceptually, but while A Sound of Thunder is a short story, this is close to two hours long (I’m not commenting here on the new feature based on Bradbury’s story except to say that it is obviously too long). The added time is filled with repeating things I already knew or could deduce, and emotional development of the characters, which it covered far too slowly.
The Butterfly Effect is also filled with plot holes and inconsistencies. Try working out why on one occasion when Evan changes reality, another person notices, but all other times, no one does. Or why some blackout periods are different from others. Better yet, don’t try. It will just make your head hurt.
Surprisingly, Kutcher does a fine job (nothing special, but acceptable) as the lead. He was unjustly savaged by critics who apparently are opposed to him dating an attractive older woman and being a sitcom star. Hey, Ashton Kutcher has a nice life right now; deal with it.
The direction and cinematography are solid, the characters believable, and the story emotional. Early on, it is too emotional as it is a black hole of despair until Evan gets to college, with only the mystery of the blackouts to distract from the tragedies heaped on tragedies.
The Butterfly Effect is one of those “almost” films. It is a smart movie, made for a smarter than average audience, but then dumbed down in an attempt to make it understandable and accessible to people who will never like it. Chop out an hour, don’t repeat what is already clear, and this could be one hell of a movie.
While I’m referring to the theatrical cut, there is a director’s cut which is longer (that’s not a good thing) but also a little darker where it should be.