Looper is like film noir without the “noir”. And also
there’s time travel.
If you haven’t figured out the basic premise from the
trailer, it goes like this: Time travel is discovered in the future and
immediately banned. Anti-crime techniques have made it such that mobsters have
difficulty disposing of bodies in their time, so they send targets in need of
disposal back to the present where Joseph Gordon-Levitt shoots them in the
chest with a blunderbuss while wearing a weird looking Bruce Willis mask.
The premise is pretty cool and the ideas get cooler.
Eventually, the present day assassin will be sent his future self to off which
will “close the loop” and wrap up all the possible crime related loose ends and
time travel paradoxes in a nice little package.
It’s all very clean and efficient until Old Joseph
Gordon-Willis shows up and meets Young Joseph Gordon-Willis face to face. Old
Joe escapes which causes plot problems for Young Joe. Later, they meet up in a
diner where the “My Future Self and Me” theme song from South Park
Oh, and also there’s a subplot about a future bad guy
causing problems for the mob and Old Joe is trying to hunt down and kill the
present day child version of said villain.
It’d be no fun to spoil things for you. It’s a clever film
which handles the potential paradoxes well (by mostly not talking about them)
and it wraps up in a satisfying, but predictable way. It will appeal to sci-fi
fans and remains grounded enough to entertain and not confuse the more feeble-minded.
Just be prepared for that weird looking face! Man, was it distracting…
