THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT
US, 2004, 113 minutes, Colour.
Ashton Kutcher, Eric Stoltz, Mellora Walters, Amy Smart, Eldon Henson, William Lee Scott.
Directed by J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress.
That's the effect that when a butterfly flutters its wings half way around the world and causes mayhem in the other half.
This is a film about parallel worlds, about four of them, which gives us the opportunity to see how characters might have been quite different, have acted quite differently, in those other worlds. The problem, of course, is which is the principal world or are they all equal?
The film opens in a laboratory with a desperate Ashton Kutcher leaving a message indicating what has happened to him. Then, back we go to one of those worlds. Evan Treborn (is that a clue: three born?) (Kutcher) is a boy with memory lapses that cannot be explained. His doctor suggests he write a journal of his experiences. Later, when those pages flutter, they cause a butterfly effect. Evan's life is partly happy with his mother and friends, especially Kayleigh). But, her father (Eric Stoltz) seems to be a molester and her brother, Tommy, a mean-minded monster of a boy, especially towards their friend, Lenny, whom they later dare to put dynamite in a letterbox, killing a mother and baby.
When Evan is in college and starts re-reading his journal, he is transported into other worlds while aware of the worlds he has come from. At times, Kayleigh is resentful of Evan's disappearance to college; in others she is a prostitute; in others she is the model student. Tommy is evil in one world, in another born again. Lenny is in a catatonic state or Kayleigh's boyfriend.
So, if you like these plot complications and like to speculate on moral choices and possibilities while watching this kind of melodrama, you will be fascinated.
1. Interesting and entertaining science fantasy? Time travel? The background of chaos theory and the butterfly flapping its wings and causing an effect a thousand kilometres away? As applied to this story?
2. The possibility of time travel, of changing the past? For better world or not?
3. The credibility of the plot, Evan's life, behaviour? The puzzle of which world he was in? The opening, its atmosphere of desperation, Evan hiding in the laboratory, the prologue and the note about his being found and wanting to save Kayleigh?
4. Ashton Kutcher and the two young actors portraying Evan, a strong sense of continuity? The other main characters and the younger versions of the adult characters?
5. Audiences puzzle - which was the real story? Who was the real Evan?
6. Evan as young, his relationship with his mother, the experiences of the blackouts, the sketch at school and the concerned teacher with his mother? Going to the doctor? Wondering where he went in his blackouts? The suggestion of writing the journal?
7. Mr Miller, Kayleigh and Tommy, his domination of them? Seemingly friendly on the outside, the invitation to make the film, taking them to the basement, the Robin Hood story, the intimacy between Robin Hood and Maid Marian? Kayleigh and Evan, Tommy being ousted but watching? The overtones of sexual abuse? This sequence being a key to Evan's experience, depression? Also on the part of Kayleigh? Of the other characters? Was this really what happened or not?
8. The group at thirteen, the bonds between them, friendships, defying authority, smoking? The importance of the dynamite, the forcing of Lenny to put it in the letterbox? The detonator giving him time to get back? Mother and baby and their deaths? The blame at the time, the blame in the other worlds?
9. Evan at university, studying, his not having any blackouts, his roommate, having the celebration? His roommate, his size, the girls? Evan and hopes for his future?
10. His decision to look at his journal, the effect of the pages blurring? His going into alternate worlds? Looking again for Kayleigh, having promised that he would take her away from the town, enquiring at the diner, finding that she was a waitress? Contact with her, her being upset at what he had done? Her brother ringing Evan, telling him of his siter's suicide?
11. Kayleigh as a characters, as a young girl, in the world where she was a waitress, in the world where she was a student, with Evan, where she was with Lennie? Seeing her as an addict and prostitute? Seeing her as an ordinary young woman and Evan passing her in the busy street?
12. The portrait of Mr Miller, as a paedophile or not? As being blameworthy or not? The effect on Tommy and his treatment of him, the friendship between Kayleigh and Evan and this sustaining her despite her father? The character of Mr Miller?
13. Tommy, his being mischievous, with the dynamite and the bombing the letterbox? In the other worlds, his phoning Evan to say that his sister had committed suicide? His being the born-again Christian and his being very genial in another world?
14. Lenny, Evan going to see him, his being in a catatonic state? The upset of his mother? The memories of the past, the friendship, his putting the dynamite in the letterbox? The alternate world where he was Kayleigh's boyfriend - and Evan's mystification by this development?
15. Evan's relationship with his mother? Her trying to bring him up well, deal with the lapses, the upset of the drawing in class? The other worlds in which she was dying of cancer? The other world in which she had grown older and had a pleasant life?
16. The doctor, his discussions with Evan, focusing on the journal? To which world did he belong? The nature of the journal, its power to project Evan into alternate worlds?
17. University life, Evan's roommate? The contrast with the university where Kayleigh and Lenny were in love? Evan on the outer?
18. Themes of identity, each character's potential for good and evil?
