Reviews & Previews - Looper

Posted on Friday, October 05, 2012 at 06:00 PM

Looper

Reviewed by: S. Tran

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt
Director: Rian Johnson
Running time: 118 minutes
Rated: R

Worthwhile Sci-Fi

Let’s face it, time travel movies are hard to do well. The time travel paradoxes eventually sink most films but Looper is an engaging, well directed film that almost manages to solve the plot holes that usually pepper these kinds of films. Solid performances and a great story create a movie that makes you glad you spent the money to see it.

Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, a young man living in the future that looks like the mother of all recessions has struck the Earth on a permanent basis. Joe is hired killer whose job is to kill targets sent back in time by mobsters in an even more distant future where time travel has been invented. His narration explains that victims are sent back in time because in the future it is impossible to hide bodies due to tracking technology.

Life for Joe is just one killing after another during the day and drugs and partying at night. Everything goes well until one day when Joe’s future self (Willis) is sent back and Joe has to track down old Joe before the mob can kill them both.

Gordon-Levitt is creating a very nice resume for himself as an adult actor and his career should be used as a blueprint for all young actors today. I have heard rumours that they used prosthetics or even CGI to make him look more like a young version of Willis and truth is he does look different but give credit to him for also doing a pretty good impression of Willis. There is one scene in particular where he mimics Willis’ squint and pursed lips to perfection.

Willis and Blunt are also good in their roles. Blunt has a smaller role but to her credit she grabs every second of screen time she is given. However, the breakout star in the cast is Pierce Gagnon who plays Blunt’s son. He is one of those rare child actors that has the spooky ability to act years beyond their age and we’ll see more of him in the years to come. Let’s hope he can follow Gordon-Levitt’s example.

If the movie were just a typical time travel/chase movie it may have been entertaining enough but director and writer Johnson gives us a much more layered story. It was thoughtful and well written with engaging dialogue, touches of humour and well paced. I didn’t expect much from the movie and was surprised at how much it left me to think about afterwards.

Its not perfect and some plot holes remain, but these are minor annoyances that don’t take anything away from the film. For my money this is one of the better films of the year and is one I may watch again soon.

4 out of 5 stars.

S. Tran also writes at Cracked.com, Gunaxin.com and Uproxx.com