Looper (2012)

 

Looper (2012)

 

This is a Time-Travel film about Second Chances and the longing for Redemption, but ultimately it’s about how we’re not actually entitled to Second Chances, if you screw-up the first time around, you have to face Consequences. Critic Keith Staskiewicz, nicely expressed why this had to be a Time-Travel film, “If we can't fix our mistakes, can we at least make sure we don't repeat the same ones over and over again?"

 

It’s way over-plotted, but masterfully executed, a Chase-Movie where in the story, the lead Characters chase each other as others Chase them, but another chase that hangs over everything, can Writer/Director Rian Johnson get to the point (which is potent) before the accumulating illogics and contrivances bring the whole House of Cards down. It is up to audience to decide who wins that second race.

 

I suspect this script was written backwards, with Johnson knowing exactly how to end it, but then struggling with how to get there. The film’s opening passages are hugely Information-Laden, relying on a Narration that never completely goes away, and setting up convoluted scenario where every detail is addressed later even though not many of them survive close-scrutiny. A clear indication of this rests in the fact that this Time-Travel story isn’t grounded in the Present, with trips into either the Past or Future, but in the Future, with trips even into an even farther Future.

 

In the year 2044, Joe Simmons (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a special kind of Hitman, called a “Looper.” His job is to execute people Sent Back in Time from 2074, an era where disposing of Murder Victims has become difficult, but Organized Crime have access to Illegal Time-Travel Technology (which doesn’t yet exist in 2044), so some Future Crime Boss just sends victims back to this earlier time and people like Joe are just, "taking out the future's garbage" (and yes, I know that makes no sense). Hitmen like Joe have made a Devil’s Bargain, they are young, paid well for very little work, indulged with all the possible Immediate Gratifications, but know from the day they sign on they will be Eliminated later on to cover up their current Crimes, which are also Crimes of the Future; this is called “closing the loop.”

 

Another detail is thrown in, some people are developing Telekinetic Powers, though these powers appear utterly useless. I don’t think I have to explain that in SF,F&H, any Fantastical element we’re told is “useless” will eventually become a huge plot point.

 

Another detail, the Future Crime Bosses are eccentrics, the Loopers execute Victims with bags over their heads because, sooner-or-later, they will be executing their own Future Selves. Joe knows this, stating in the narration, “This job doesn’t tend to attract the most forward-thinking people,” and that line sets up the rest of the film better than any other, because Joe is still young enough to change his path, and self-aware enough to do so, but as a Drug-Addicted Nihilist, he feels no compulsion to do so.

 

Twice in the film, the Looper fails to commit the Self-Annihilation (called “letting the loop run”). The first time it’s Looper Seth (Paul Dano), a friend of Joe’s whom Joe casually betrays, so we get to see impressive hijinks as Current Seth is tortured, and harm instantly mutilates the body of Future Seth (Frank Brennan), now on the run in the wrong decade. The second time is when Current Joe is overpowered by Future Joe (Bruce Willis) who came back in Time not to Die, but with a plan to Rewrite the Past and Change the Future. From then on Current Joe is on the run from his Employer, Abe (Jeff Daniels), and hunting Future Joe. If Current Joe “closes the loop” on Future Joe, he should be able to enjoy a few more decades of wealth with all his limbs still attached.

 

It’s even more complicated than that, or as Abe says, “This time-travel crap fries your brain like an egg.” Abe is, himself, a Time-Traveler, sent from 2074 to manage the 2044. He’s world-weary, acerbic, and gets all the best lines in a script that has lots of really good lines.

 

The film’s Near-Future has cool SF toys, but given the short timeframe from now, largely looks the same as now. There’s effective verisimilitude, rich and gritty enough to be a Realistic Crime Thriller, and the visual vocabulary go far to make the wild improbabilities and thick exposition easier to digest. In addition to the strong sense location that Writer/Director Johnson and Cinematographer Steve Yedlin (Johnson’s frequent collaborator), create, the film compels because Johnson grasped the emotional core. In this over-complicated, swirling mass, there’s clarity when addressing the Themes of Nature-versus-Nurture and Undying Love as being both Redemptive and Toxic.

 

Actors Gordon-Levitt and Willis could not be more improbably, but perfectly, cast. Gordon-Levitt (also a Producer for the film) effortlessly sells Character Joe’s jaded, amoral, fatalism, until he must look himself in the face, and sees the Devil’s Bargain of the Looper is even worse than he realized. Meanwhile Willis, whose performance lacks any of his signature wit, but in the best possible way, is a cool, coldblooded killer, but deeply lonely and longing in ways Current Joe hasn’t had the time to become. The two Actors look nothing alike, the bridge between them was somewhat addressed by Gordon-Levitt’s prosthetic make-up, but mostly through the visceral energy they both bring in their few scenes together. As it turns out, both Joes are given a shot at Redemption through the love of a woman. Current Joe encounters single-mom Sara (Emily Blunt), who will do anything to protect her son, Cid (Pierce Gagnon). Future Joe wants to Raise his Future Wife from her Future Dead (Quing Xu, who makes a strong impression even though her character is never given a name).

 

In this Cat and Mouse, Future Joe should have the upper hand, he should anticipate his Younger Self’s every move, but Current Joe can also scar Future Joe, and with that, he’s able to force a face-to-face negotiation. During that face-to-face scene, Future Joe resists any alternative to his Plan, "I don't want to talk about time travel because if we start talking about it then we're going to be here all day talking about it, making diagrams with straws." He sounds like Abe, simply accepting the Consequences of Time-Travel as he was taught to perceive it, ignoring that it is a Human Invention, and therefore not above Human Intervention. Something amazing evolves, we see the Redemption-longing Future Joe is actually more selfish than Current Joe, because Current Joe comes up with a plan that would actually work, the Killings would stop, they both could walk away, but Future Joe, who built his life on stealing the lives of others, doesn’t want a safer world, he wants to reclaim his unearned happiness, by stealing the lives of others again.

 

Current Joe hisses, "Why don't you do what old men do, and die?"

This is a highly original film but doesn’t disguise its references. Most obvious is “The Terminator” (1984) and even includes Actor Garret Dillahunt (he had a major role in the TV series, “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” (first aired 2008) which was part of “The Terminator” franchise). And then there is Actor Willis’ earlier Time-Travel film “12 Monkeys” (1995). Older Gangster Movies also haunt this film, Character Abe even jokes about that, "The movies you are dressing like are just copying other movies." That line is also thematically potent, because it speaks of recurrence, we seem to do the same things over-and-over again. Future Joe’s Redemption plan is just another recurrence, and a Monstrous one. Can the cycle be broken? Loopers don’t end the cycle by “closing the loop,” so what is required to actually make that happen? Critic Richard Corliss perceptively called it a "hybrid, mashing Quentin Tarantino and Philip K. Dick.”

 

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iQuhsmtfHw