The Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect casts Ashton Kutcher as Evan Treborn, a troubled young man who discovers that he can travel back in time to events from his childhood and teen years – with his inevitable attempts at making things better having often disastrous results for those around him (hence the title). Though it eventually becomes quite engrossing, The Butterfly Effect suffers from a slow-moving and surprisingly unpleasant opening half hour that holds the viewer at arms length from the material. There reaches a point, however, at which the picture starts to become more and more compelling, with the increased attention given to Evan’s time-travel shenanigans playing a key role in triggering the impressive turnaround. Kutcher’s solid work as the movie’s earnest protagonist heightens the movie’s progressively involving vibe, to be sure, while Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber’s screenplay effectively balances the narrative’s time-shifting elements with smaller, character-based moments – with the most obvious example of the latter an ongoing emphasis on Evan’s troubled relationship with Amy Smart’s Kayleigh. And while the film’s overlong running time remains an issue from start to finish (ie most scenes feel longer than necessary and the whole thing could’ve used tightening), The Butterfly Effect is, generally speaking, an above-average time travel picture that ultimately utilizes (and exploits) its out-there premise quite nicely.

***1/2 out of ****