Film Diary 2012: Looper

At the core of Rian Johnson's sci-fi thriller is a version of one of the age old time travel questions; If you could go back and kill Hitler when he was a child and prevent terrible events from occuring, would you?

It's 2042 and 30 years later time travel will have been invented and outlawed, but gangsters are using time travel illegally as a means of effectively conducting assassinations.  You tie up and bag someone in the future, send them to the past where a 'Looper' like Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Joe instantly shoots them, takes the silver strapped to their back and dumps them in a furnace.

There is a catch for the Loopers though, one day they'll turn that freshly killed corpse over and discover gold instead of silver, this means they've "closed their Loop" and killed their own future self.  They can take their gold and live their life, but 30 years later they will be sent back for their inevitable suicurder (I just made that up).

However Joe is caught off guard when, one day, his future self appears before him (played by Bruce Willis), he isn't bagged and makes his escape.  Eventually it transpires that a crime lord known as the Rainmaker has taken over in the future and is closing all the loops, future Joe has found out the locations of three children who were born on the same day, one of which he believes to be the Rainmaker.

The first act of Looper is an absolute marvel, a thunderously edited and exceedingly efficient piece of writing and direction that immediately sets up the world of Looper perfectly, giving us so much about the character of Joe in a dizzyingly paced montage of events.  Alongside this a neat sub-plot involving fellow Looper Seth (Paul Dano) has a gloriously nightmarish twist on the perils of time travel, and levity is provided by a crumpled Jeff Daniels as crime boss Abe.

Once future Joe turns up the film takes a jarring and wonderful twist, playing with audience expectations and the rules of continuity excellently.  Indeed, for the most part Johnson's film is a thoughtful and unique look at time travel in as realistic a way as possible, second only to Shane Carruth's Primer.

It also a smaller, quieter movie than one might expect, but this isn't entirely successful.  Whilst a scene between the two Joes in a diner manages to skirt around some potentially dodgy conversation with skill, there are moments later as young Joe finds himself holed up in a remote farmhouse with Sara (Emily Blunt) and her boy Cid (Pierce Gagnon) that slump along awkwardly, with the outcomes far too obvious to really hold the attention.

That's not to say this section of the film is without reward, Garret Dillahunt shows up as a equally charming and intimidating presence hunting for the Joes, and Johnson draws a fine performance from the young Gagnon.

However the emotional weight behind these scenes feels contrived rather than earned.  Far more thought-provoking are the scenes with Willis as he heads off on his mission, one which raises the aforementioned quandry, but throws in an element of doubt that creates a tremendous conflict and raises some great questions to debate about afterwards.

For the most part though the film isn't really about brain twisting complexity or ethical and moral debate, it creates an interesting universe with some neat twists on old conventions, but it doesn't quite have enough to say beyond being a neat, intelligent flick.  Indeed, there are sequences - such as old Joe's return to the Looper offices and a third act appearance by a consistently beleagured hitman - that seem only included to provide a short burst of action or act as a deus ex machina.

Overall though, Looper's strengths do out weight its flaws, thanks to Johnson's skills as a writer and director, Bob Ducasy's fantastic editing and great performances from the two Joes.  However the events of the film ultimately feel a tad underwhelming and inconsequential, and whilst it engages your brain it struggles to really engage your heart.

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