The future is the past is the future.

"LOOPER"

Written and Directed by Rian Johnson

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt and Jeff Daniels

Rated R

118 Minutes



Director Rian Johnson has only three major films under his belt, but with each effort has proven hismelf a prodigy.  "Looper" is his third feature film as both writer and director and once again shows his ability to infuse genre pictures with inginuity and smarts.  His "Brick" was a grim gumshoe detective story set in a contemporary high school and "The Brothers Bloom" was a sleek heist movie that made excellent use of its locations.  Now here is "Looper," which on its surface is a time travel sci-fi film with a stellar cast and gorgeous visuals.  At its core, however, is a surprisingly moving tale about  self-regret, sacrifice and the importance of parenting.  The slogan for the movie is actually quite clever at selling two of "Looper's" strongest themes: 'Face your future, fight your past.'

The movie begins with an informative voice-over by an assassin named Joe, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his third big role this year.  Joe isn't your average assassin; he helpfully explains that in thirty years, time travel will be invented and immediately outlawed.  A futuristic mob syndicate will illegally use time travel to send targets thirty years into the past to be eliminated by the assassins, which the movie dubs 'loopers.'  With me so far? Joe is a looper in 2044, which serves as the present setting.  His boss, Abe (Jeff Daniels) was sent back from 2074 to supervise the loopers and make sure that their targets don't escape. This step is especially important when it comes time for the loopers to 'close their loop,' which is a professional way of saying that they must kill their future selves to ensure that all traces of this operation are erased.  Doing this comes with a substantial pay-out that allows the loopers to retire and live the good life for the next 30 years.

This raises the first of many moral complications that "Looper" dabbles in.  You see, if you took a job as a looper knowing that eventually one of your targets would be the older version of you, could you actually live happily for 30 years with the knowledge that your life is to be cut short?  Not only that but that your murderer would be....you?  Rian Johnson's exceptional screenplay somehow keeps these ideas manageable but no less intriguing.  Early on, Joe is asked to either give up his friend Seth (Paul Dano), who has let his loop escape, or give up half his savings, which he sincerely hopes to use to retire to france upon closing his own loop.  Joe's conversation with Abe is intimidating and strangely tender, but it has a logic that seemlessly stays true to Johnson's established ethical foundation.

It is not a spoiler to reveal that Joe's older self, played by Bruce Willis, eventually is zapped back for assassination.  The twist is that he doesn't have a hood on, so when young Joe hesitates, old Joe gets the upper hand and escapes.  This jump starts the film's middle act, which sometimes resembles "Minority Report" in its sci-fi sensibilities and sometimes resembles film noir in its tonal resonance.  By far the film's best scene is in a rural diner where the two versions of Joe meet for a vital conversation.  Young Joe knows that he must kill old Joe, and his conviction is strangely hypnotic; we kind of see his point.  It is his job, after all.  Old Joe must know that at some point, he used to be the young Joe that sits before him now and he lectures young Joe that he is naive and has a lot of growing up to do.  That Johnson takes time with this dialogue is such a smart move, because it allows us to reflect on our choices and regrets.  30 years from now, are you going to be able to say you made the right choices when you were younger? 

I can say no more of the plot but to simply mention that no matter how many times you saw the previews for "Looper," most of where the movie goes will be a complete surprise.  Emily Blunt delivers an intriguing performance central to the third act, but basically all of that development has been succesfully concealed by the previews.  This is one case of marketing that serves the picture well.  "Looper" undoubtedly requires more than one viewing, at the very least because there is so much to appreciate.  Oddly enough, the time travel mechanism is probably the least complicated aspect in the entire narrative.  Rian Johnson plays in familiar territory but incredibly doesn't leave the paradoxes and questions hidden; rather, he embraces them and centers some of the film's key sequences around them.  When the film does employ visual effects, they are not distracting and it is nice to see a director who knows how to use slow motion properly.  The make-up used to transform Joseph Gordon-Levitt into a young Bruce Willis is uncanny and his performance easily sells the notion that he is the younger version of the same man. 

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is having a stellar year with three major films already delivered, and "Lincoln" premiering in November. Thankfully, by sticking with the likes of Chris Nolan and Rian Johnson, his talents are being utilized well.  In fact, "Looper" almost works as a companion piece to "Inception" in that it proves that sci-fi blockbusters need not be filled with constant explosions and CGI to be entertaining, but can excel based off original ideas.  My hope is that Rian Johnson stays true to his own convictions and doesn't get caught up in the studio mechanisms of Hollywood.  "Looper" is a perfect example of what happens when a director is allowed to maintain their creative integrity and something tells me that before he succumbs to studio pressure, he'd close his own loop.