Review of Looper (2012) by Stevenf — 25 Apr 2013

You might just take Looper at first glance as what it says in all the marketing and synopsis material, with time travel now being possible, large crime syndicates send their targets back in time to be executed by Loopers, hired guns who can dispose of the bodies a lot easier than they can in the future.

But what is shown in the film is so much more than that, and it plays out into a brilliant, yet not perfect, sci-fi thriller.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Joe, one of these Loopers, and when he isn't being hired to kill someone from the future, he is stashing away the silver bricks, his payment, and only cashes in a few, and by night he parties and takes drugs, until his next assassination. Gordon-Levitt has had prosthetics and make-up applied to his face to look like a younger version of, well, himself, but actually Bruce Willis, who plays the future Joe, sent back in time to be killed, and of course when this goes wrong, the simple rule has been disobeyed, never let your loop get away.

But in the bigger picture, Old Joe is back to try and prevent a tragic event in his own life, and he can only do so in Young Joe's time, and that lies within a small boy, Cid, played by Pierce Gagnon, and this kid truly puts in a wonderful performance, he is perhaps the best thing about this film and his acting and manner is fantastic, and of course a plot twist just adds to the heightened drama.

The whole cast, including Emily Blunt and Jeff Daniels, are on fine form, a Looper truly does portray a different sort of dystopian future that we are used to seeing in cinema these days. But while the film is smart and clever in its original idea, this perhaps could be its biggest downfall. The amount of plot holes after watching it second time are just too big to ignore or not give notice to, they don't exactly ruin what is a entertaining film, but on occasion it just seems all for nothing when you realise what other way it could have went. With such a complex idea, there was always going to be a slip up along the way for writer/director Rain Johnson.

Aside from this, there are enough twists and turns to keep you entertained for two hours, and Gordon-Levitts similarities to Bruce Willis including his gruff, soft-spoken voice are mind-boggling.

An excellent, albeit flawed thriller, which offers realism, while also poking fun the odd time on what other films try so hard to be serious about, definitely see Looper.