January 23, 2004 | As a Twilight Zone type of time-bending, destiny-altering thriller, The Butterfly Effect has a lot going for it: An intriguing premise, intelligently tricky plot twists, sympathetic supporting characters and a tasty bittersweet ending. At the center of the film, however, there is a gaping hole where a strong lead performance should be.
Ashton Kutcher of That 70s Show and Dude, Where My Car? plays the hero of the piece, but his earnest work seldom rises above the level of a good try. The movie – which conspicuously credits Kutcher as executive producer – desperately needs an actor skillful enough to sustain credibility and maintain sympathy while the central character undergoes abrupt, dramatic and sometimes seemingly arbitrary metamorphoses. Unfortunately, The Butterfly Effect exemplifies The Peter Principle: By giving Kutcher a chance to transcend his familiar comic persona, it allows him to rise to a level where his limitations are painfully obvious.
Kutcher plays Evan Treborn, a troubled psychology major who takes a break from his college studies to analyze his own repressed memories. Mind you, many of those memories really should remain repressed: During an effectively creepy prologue, we see that young Evan (played at 7 and 13 by Logan Lerman and John Patrick Amerdori) nearly got killed by his mentally disturbed dad, and later was forced to star in kiddie porn by the depraved father (Eric Stoltz) of his two favorite playmates. But wait, there’s more: Young Evan inadvertently triggered a tragedy while pulling a dangerous prank with Tommy and Kayleigh, children of the amateur porn director, and Lenny, an overweight youngster who’s most seriously scarred by the event.
Little wonder that Evan has been troubled by blackouts all his life: His mind simply can’t process many of the horrors he has witnessed.
By paging through journals he kept during the worst times of his life, Evan finds he is able to recall bits and pieces of various traumatic events. More important, he also finds that whenever he concentrates very intently – and the special effects wizards make everything on screen jiggle and wobble – he can actually relive the events and significantly alter their outcome. Trouble is, every time he changes something for the better in the past, he returns to a present that is much, much worse for his meddling.
Imagine a cross between Groundhog Day and Frequency , with a few other classic sci-fi scenarios thrown in for good measure, and you’ll have some inkling of what to expect here. Taking their cue from the titular theory, which they thoughtfully explain before the opening credits, filmmakers Eri c Bress and J. Mackye Gruber construct an intricate interlacing of cause and effect, action and consequence, to demonstrate how good intentions and second chances can generate all sorts of collateral damage.
Their logic isn’t quite airtight – at least one unfortunate twist relies on Evan’s tripwire temper, not his time-tripping tendencies – but the plot manages to hold your interest. Better still, it also withstands skeptical scrutiny when you replay the movie in your head while you’re driving home from the theater.
Kutcher fails to give the movie everything it needs, but at least he doesn’t get in the way of anyone else’s best efforts. Amy Smart (as grown-up Kayleigh), William Lee Scott (Tommy) and Elden Henson (Lenny) are exceptionally adept at portraying the various permutations of characters who are radically transformed each time Evan takes a blast to the past. In fact, they’re so good that it’s impossible to describe their achievements in detail without spoiling one or more of the surprises they spring on the audience.
