If you try to sew up all of the plot holes in a time travel movie, you’ll bleed it of every drop of fun. Take the “Terminator” films for example. You can stitch hole after hole in the series and never close them all, but you will lose sight of the deeply emotional human story at the center of them.
The same goes for “Looper,” a new science fiction movie starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and other fine actors. In the movie, Gordon Levitt’s character, Joe, is an assassin in the year 2044 who kills people from 30 years in the future. Since it’s nearly impossible to dispose of bodies in 2074, criminal organizations use illegal time travel technology to send people to the past to be dispatched. Joe goes to a corn field, unloads his blunderbuss into the hooded target the moment it pops into view and then takes the body and incinerates it.
Joe likes the arrangement and makes a good living doing what he does. Then one day his future self, played by Willis, pops into view - sans the hood. The lack of covering causes Joe to hesitate, and the old Joe escapes. The young Joe’s sole purpose in life instantly becomes tracking and killing his future self. If he doesn’t, his boss, a very unpleasant sort from the future, will do very unpleasant things to him in the present.
To share more about the story would be a disservice to you. Although I’m tempted to tell you more, I don’t want to rob you of the pleasure of watching this exceptional movie unfold. Instead, I’ll discuss its many merits, the most impressive of which is the writing.
I started this review by discussing the futility of trying to close holes in a time travel movie. “Looper” has them, but they’re small, and most of them can be explained away. Writer and director Rian Johnson clearly took great pains to construct a world that operated by certain rules and then obeyed those rules to the letter. By not cheating even once, Johnson gave his use of time travel an iron clad credibility and made it easy for viewers to embrace and simply enjoy his story.
And what a story it is. Johnson wrote a tight, clever script that seamlessly switches between time periods, locations and characters, and slowly reveals how and why these characters wound up in the same place. Throughout this process, he builds tension slowly and takes the story to a point where there seems to be no suitable resolution. Then he pulls a shocker out of his hat. All the while, he keeps the action moving.
Johnson does this without sacrificing character development. In fact, for this story to come to a conclusion that makes sense, these characters MUST change. I like how Johnson fearlessly created an unlikable lead - a killer who lives only for himself, and who at one point makes a decision that places him lower than pond scum - and then gradually transformed him into a sympathetic character.
Then there’s the older Joe, who (OK, I’m going to reveal a small tidbit) aged along a different timeline than the young Joe will. We understand the thing that motivates him to do what he does - but also hate what he does.
And somehow, Johnson managed to gracefully slip two heartfelt love stories into this sci-fi brew.
Although this is Johnson’s movie, top to bottom, his actors carried a lot of its weight. Gordon-Levitt could not be better as Joe, and if you think Willis can only grin and say “Yipee ki yay,” then he’ll change your mind with his tortured portrayal of the older Joe.
When “Looper” faded to black, I sat there for a few seconds and then said, “Wow.” It’s suspenseful; clever, but not too clever for its own good; remarkably well written and directed; terrifically acted; and utterly engrossing. Moviegoers last month let another good sci-fi movie, “Dredd 3D,” go by virtually unwatched. Do not miss “Looper.”
Rated R for violence, language, sexuality, nudity and drug content. Four stars out of four. Email David Laprad at dlaprad@hamiltoncountyherald.com.