"Looper" will keep you on your toes

[rating=6]

This movie was seriously awesome.  It’s been a while since a noteably orginial movie has come out that has the power to blow the audience away like this one did for me.  The real thing that sets this movie apart from all the rest is the mentality that it doesn’t HAVE to explain every little detail to the audience.  Instead of tying every small detail up, it leaves a lot of questions for the audience.  Some may call them plot holes, but it didn’t seem like that to me.  Instead, the movie seemed like it was more of an experience where the audience watched a story take place in another world that was meant to feel real.  Some things are left for the audience to interpret, which makes this something to think about after you leave the theater.

 “Looper” is a term used in the year 2044 for hitmen that are sent targets from the future.  Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, The Dark Knight Rises) is one of those hitmen.  When the future mobsters decide to terminate the Looper’s contract, they capture the old, retired looper, strap gold to their backs, and send them to their younger selves to be killed.  When Joe receives his target two minutes late and finds it is an unmasked, older version of himself (Bruce Willis, Red) he is overpowered and knocked unconscious, allowing Old Joe to escape.  This, obviously, doesn’t go well for Joe, who is now being chased by the organization he works for. His only hope of safety is to hide, or kill his old self.  He finds safety on a farm owned by Sarah (Emily Blunt, The Five Year Engagement) that he was sent to by Old Joe, who is hunting down the mob boss that sent him back in the first place.

I know the plot sounds a little hard to handle, but that’s only because it is.  So much happens in so little time that you have to be paying very close attention to get everything that goes on, and even then you feel like you missed something.  This movie will keep you on your toes as you try to wrap your brain around the information it just gave you while it continues to proceed.  If you’re looking for a movie to casually sit and watch, this movie isn’t for you.

“Looper” also has one of the best child acting I’ve seen in years.  Pierce Gagnon portrays the role of Cid, Sarah’s son, so heartbreakingly well that you just want to give the kid a hug and a cupcake.  Seriously.  Usually child actors are given small roles that interact with the adults quite a bit in order to facilitate the way the scene goes, but for Gagnon, this isn’t required.  Give him fifteen years and he’ll be the next big actor, just wait.

To sum everything up: go see this movie.  It handles the issues of time travel and paradoxes very well and it’s a movie unlike any other.

“Looper” is rated R for strong violence (a lot of gunplay, violence involving children, and many scenes showing peopel being killed with shotguns), language (scattered profanities and many uses of the F-word), some sexuality/nudity (a brief sex scene, several women are shown topless) and drug content (a man uses a drug in the form of an eye dropper several times).