I went into this film thinking it would be Dude Where's My Time Machine. It packs an emotional punch that stays with you. The ending was a bit surprising to me, and I will not give it away. The movie would have you believe that a foul mouthed 7 year old could convince an adult pervert to stay away from kids and mend his ways just because he said so. At one point, he goes back and confronts a pedophile. One of the resolved problems is too simple and not very believable. His performance could have easily become campy or heroic, but he plays it all as if he is just a normal Joe caught up in something bigger than himself. Ashton does a great job of holding this movie together. The movie is straight science fiction, but it is played with serious drama. Each time he goes back, his present life and the lives of people around him change dramatically. The fall out from doing so is that it changes people's lives. One day he reads from one of his old journals and discovers that he can actually take himself back to one of his black out periods. The movie jumps ahead to when the boy is now in college. The only advice he is given to help deal with this problem is to keep a journal. The black outs all seem to occur during very traumatic times in his youth. His father is in a mental ward for experiencing the same thing. He has no memory of what happens during those times. The movie tells the story of a boy who has blackouts. Here he plays it straight and to great effect. Ashton Kutcher usually plays some variation of a goof ball. The Butterfly Effect surprised me with its depth and seriousness.
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