Looper, the third feature film from writer-director Rian Johnson (who previously brought audiences the neo-noir thriller, Brick, and caper-flick, The Brothers Bloom) is a powerful, clever and swiftly-paced sci-fi film that you'll want to see time and time again - if just to try and understand it.
To describe the story succinctly is a ridiculous feat - it'd be like writing down Inception's plot on a post-it note - but for the sake of reviewing, I'll give it a shot: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 (Days of Summer), The Dark Knight Rises) plays a titular Looper, called Joe. In the time in which Looper (the film, not the thing) is set - just over 30 years in the future, in 2044 - time travel hasn't been invented yet, but, another 30 years in the future, it has been - although it was almost instantly outlawed. Stricter rules, though, mean the mobs of the future-future have to use it if they want to take out a hit on someone; they send their victims back in time 30 years, to 2044, - present day for Looper - where a specialised hitman (a Looper - the thing, not the film) shoots them, in exchange for a hoard of silver strapped to the body. Easy money, right? Wrong.
The caveat is that, at the end of their contract, the mob sends back the future-future version of the Looper, to be killed by their younger self. Fortunately, due to bindings and a sack over the head, the Loopers don't know the hit is them until after the fact - where they're rewarded with bars of gold strapped to the body. If, for some reason, they fail to kill their older self ("letting your loop run"), then they're as good as dead anyway. Things go awry for Joe when the latest hit turns out to be himself, but for some reason, his older self is sackless and unbound. Of course, because Old Joe is Bruce Willis (Die Hard, Unbreakable), Young Joe gets his arse handed to him, and the loop runs free, bent on vengeance through the present-future. To avoid spoiling the film, I'll not go any further.
Follow that? I won't blame you if you didn't. Looper is a magnificent film, with a gripping story, but it's really confusing. But, to be honest, it's all the better for it. The reason time travel is such a popular element in film and TV is because of how abstract and complex it is, it's open to interpretation; it's a thinking man's film. The more confusing it is, the better, because it means you have to think about it and arrive at your conclusions (for good or bad), and that sense of aporia - particularly with the brilliant ending here - is a definite plus for Looper. Just try not to think about the paradoxes too much, it will melt your face off, Raiders of the Lost Ark-style.
The story, as well as magnificently complex and mind-boggling, is a very moving one. You really feel for both Joes, and while Bruce Willis gives a decent performance, Joseph Gordon-Levitt puts on a powerful one - his chemistry with Emily Blunt's Sara is brilliant; and Blunt herself is fantastic, capturing both the allure that she holds for Joe, and the kindness and devotion she holds for her son, Cid. The performances are good, but it is undoubtedly the story and the stylish and powerful direction by Rian Johnson that steal the show.
Also surprising is just how intense and action-packed the story is. Compared to the more puzzling, huge set pieces of Inception, Looper instead offers a lot of straight-up gun fights and blazing chases - and it's great! Bruce Willis brings his action-chops, making the film seem as fully at home as an action film as it is as a sci-fi one. Although it's also particularly gruesome in one scene involving the future self of a friend of Joe's - if you've seen it, I need say no more.
It's not a perfect film, and some bits don't come off as Johnson clearly expected - Old Joe's wife became a bit of a damp squib, what was supposedly the emotional drive for the film seemed to be dropped in favour of other ideas Johnson had along the way. And seriously don't even get me started on Bruce Willis's emo fringe; it was clearly supposed to be a big, intense revelation, as the newly Willis-faced JGL was now the Die Hard star, but it was just daft. That said, this is a bloody good film, and definitely one of 2012's best.
It's not as good as Inception - the film it's been consistently compared to - but that's not really saying a lot; Inception was an absolute masterpiece from one of the best directors of our time. Looper doesn't try to imitate that, it is firmly it's own thing, it's own action-packed, intense thing. And that's good. In a world with more and more sequels and adaptations every year, the world has more than enough room for two wholly original, smart and gripping films.
9/10
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Interpretation of the ending.
Right, now this is where you should avert your eyes unless you've already seen the film, because this section is my interpretation of the ending, which contains spoilers!
Cid/Young Rainmaker was wreaking havoc, yet Sara talked him down, showing his mum to be a positive and calming influence. Surely this changes time, meaning that he wouldn't become Rainmaker, and thus wouldn't kill Joe's wife, so Joe would never have travelled back in time to set these events in motion, so things would end there. But then that means that none of this would have ever happened, so nothing would change, and Cid would still become Rainmaker, and still kill Joe's wife, so Joe would still travel back in time - it's a loop!
Cid/Young Rainmaker was wreaking havoc, yet Sara talked him down, showing his mum to be a positive and calming influence. Surely this changes time, meaning that he wouldn't become Rainmaker, and thus wouldn't kill Joe's wife, so Joe would never have travelled back in time to set these events in motion, so things would end there. But then that means that none of this would have ever happened, so nothing would change, and Cid would still become Rainmaker, and still kill Joe's wife, so Joe would still travel back in time - it's a loop!
Off on a tangent, Old Joe, angry that the kid would grow up to have his wife killed, is bent on bloody revenge, and, in the process, kills Sara. Cid, furious at seeing his mum killed before his eyes, goes on the warpath, using his TK abilities to take over the mobs and wreak his vengeance upon Joe and all other Loopers. Prompting Joe to go back in time to stop him, then failing to kill him and instead killing his mum, leading to yet another loop.
Young Joe sees a way out and turns his blunderbuss on himself, eliminating Old Joe from existence and allowing Cid and Sara to live happily together. However, if Old Joe never existed, then he never travelled back in time to kill Cid, meaning that Young Joe never met Cid or Sara, and never killed himself. So the events are the same as before, Joe gets old, his wife gets killed, he tries to kill Cid, etc..., etc... Yet another loop.
The conclusion I arrive it is this: the happiness of the ending is open to your optimistic or pessimistic interpretation. And that Looper is a bloody accurate title for the film.
The cast is great, especially JGL who has been having a stellar career so far, but the plot it what really kept me interested as it continued to throw twist-after-twist at me, without any confusion whatsoever. It’s a great sci-fi flick that actually makes sense. Good review William.
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