Rian Johnson’s “Looper” is an ingenious movie which combines
the genres of noir, science-fiction and western into a mind twister of a film
that will have you enthralled throughout. It reminds you of all those time
travels movies you grew up watching, and yet it feels very original when
compared to them. It also proves that Johnson is a creative filmmaking force to
reckon with, and it gives each cast member an opportunity to give their best
performance in any film they made in 2012.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Joe Simmons, an assassin in
the year 2044 who works for the mafia and kills agents sent from the year 2072.
In this future time travel is possible and also illegal, and the mob takes
advantage of it to get rid of their garbage. The movie’s title refers to the
kind of assassin Joe is, a foot soldier who is paid on the condition that their
targets never escape. They end up getting a shotgun called a Blunderbuss which
doesn’t have much of a range but is powerful enough to kill a person up close. When
“Looper” starts, Joe looks to have been doing this for a while and has been
living the good life as a result.
Things change drastically though when the mob decides to “close
the loop” by sending back the Loopers’ future versions of themselves to eliminate.
Joe ends up seeing an older version of himself (played by Bruce Willis) appear
before him, and he ends up getting away. From there the young Joe is on the run
as he has searches for the old Joe in order to get the mob off his back and
live to see another day (so to speak).
To say more will give away some of “Looper’s” most inventive
moments as it is full of surprises you don’t see coming. The story looks to
have been very well thought out, and its focus is more on the characters than
anything else. And like the more recent sci-fi movies such as “Children of Men,”
it creates a future that looks futuristic but at the same time is not far
removed from our own. Some movies can alienate you with their overreliance on special
effects like the needless remake of “Total Recall,” but “Looper” isn’t out to
blow you away visually. Instead, it finds its most potent moments involving the
insane situations Levitt and Willis among others find themselves in.
“Looper” isn’t the first movie where two actors play
different versions of the same character, but I have a hard time remembering
the last one which had that happen (maybe it was one of the “Austin Powers”
sequels). Seeing Levitt and Willis face off in a diner gives us one of the most
riveting scenes in any movie you will see in any movie this year. Considering
how brutal they are to each other throughout the movie, I couldn’t help but
think: “talk about being hard on yourself!”
Time travel as a concept has been done to death in movies,
and Johnson is fully aware of how familiar movie audiences are of the rules
surrounding it. I loved how he used that to his advantage here as it makes “Looper”
easier to follow than it might seem at first. Johnson also succeeds in juggling
different storylines to great effect as it could have burned out creatively
speaking before the end credits came up. You go into “Looper” thinking it’s
about time travel, but then it becomes about something else entirely. Like “The
Master” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” this is a film that demands to be seen
multiple times to take in all its meanings.
Levitt has had a fantastic year so far in 2012 with terrific
performances in “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Premium Rush” and, unless he does
better in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming “Lincoln,” “Looper” is the icing on the
cake for him. As the young Joe Simmons, he gets his meatiest role to date as an
assassin who’s a drug addict (what’s in those eye drops anyway?) but also still
has a bit of conscience left. While the prosthetics on his face, which were
used to make him look more Willis, are a bit awkward to take in at first,
Levitt gives the role his all and looks thrilled to able to transform himself
into a character like this.
So much has been said over the years about Bruce Willis as
his role as John McClane from the “Die Hard” movies will forever be burned into
our consciousness, but seeing him as Old Joe in “Looper” reminds us of what a
great actor he can be. His Joe is driven to correct the past so that he can
save the future he built up for himself, but it also forces him to do things
that leave him morally conflicted. Seeing the pain cross Willis’ face makes us
still root for him somewhat in “Looper” even as his character goes seriously
astray with his deadly actions.
Then there’s Emily Blunt who plays hard bitten single mom
Sara, and she is incredibly powerful in “Looper” regardless of whether or not
she is wielding a heavy duty shotgun. Blunt has been a continually wonderful
presence in each movie she’s in, and here she gets to be both bad-ass and very
vulnerable. Her scenes with Pierce Gagnon, the 5-year old actor who is amazing as her son Cid, are as
emotionally powerful as they are deeply suspenseful.
There are also other terrific performances to be found in “Looper”
from actors like Paul Dano who plays neurotic assassin Seth, and Noah Segan who
channels Billy the Kid into his role of a six shooter carrying killer named Kid
Blue. And there’s no forgetting the great Jeff Daniels who brings both danger
and humor to his role of mob boss Abe. Some are surprised to see Daniels in
this kind of role given that he is typically cast as nice guys in movies, but
keep in mind this is the same guy who played the most embittered of writers in “The
Squid and The Whale.”
It’s a treat for moviegoers that a film as endlessly
inventive as “Looper” got produced in a time where creativity is at a cinematic
low. Everyone involved in this picture clearly came to it with tremendous
enthusiasm, and it shows every single second in unfolds before us. It is not only
one of the best movies of 2012, but also one of the best time travel movies
ever made.
* * * * out of * * * *
