Looper

Looper is an attractive concept that will keep you engaged to the movie for its uniqueness. Even though the concept is unique on the long run it takes a few aids from previous concepts we have seen in films about time travelling and preventing the possible future and all. An engaging first half and an awkwardly paced second half that goes too much on the emotional trauma of characters makes Looper an original movie with a pinch of draw backs.

The plot is about Loopers. They are specially assigned people by Mafia gangs to kill people who are used by Mafias for certain purposes and the Looper’s are also victims. These people are illegally migrated to the present from the future and the Looper will have to just blow the one that appears in front of him. When a Looper kills himself, i.e he himself comes from the future, his loop is complete. The spark of the movie is when our leading protagonist Joe meets his own future but fails to kill his older version. The mafia gangs are after Joe as killing him would naturally finish the older version. The older Joe is after a child, believing that the child’s future is the reason for his present faith and if he kills the boy he would be able to live with his wife.

Well the plot is unique and apart from the time travelling there are some interesting slices of emotions shown by the director through the characters played by Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt. The second half of the movie is a bit stretched out as it tries to build an emotional contact between Sarah and Joe. Through that period the makers are trying to create an emotional space in Joe’s mind who first said that he doesn’t care anything about Sarah and her kid. I think the makers have done it in the possible short time span, but still that was a bit too long.

On screen Joseph Gordon-Levitt has played his part smoothly. His look for the movie is absolutely a spooky one with those eyes having a bit of an alien touch. Even though the screen time of the character is very less, Bruce Willis impresses us with a wide range of emotions and he truly looked desperate. May be this was the movie that tested his acting skills after a long time. Emily is satisfying as the protective and caring single mother who convinces Joe that she will take care of her son and raise him in a good manner. The kid Pierce Gagnon deserves a big round of applauds for the mind blowing performance. The way he carried the role was quite remarkable.

Direction of Rian Johnson is impressive and he mixes melodrama and engaging thrills nicely. About the screenplay, I feel it is correctly paced in the first leg of the movie but as it goes to the emotional backdrops of characters it becomes a little predictable and looses the grip slightly. Cinematography and the cuts are cool. The VFX was satisfying and the BGM was also in sync.

On the whole Looper is a movie that goes beyond the description of being just a time traveler movie but still left unexplored in many parts. I am giving 3.5/5 and a thumps up for Rian Johnson’s Looper. If you like thinking don’t think about whether you should watch this one or not. Go for it!