Director: Rian Johnson
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Noah Segan, Piper Perabo, Jeff Daniels, Pierce Gagnon, Qing Xu, Frank Brennan
Rating: (R16)
3 stars (out of 5)
Exactly 30 years in the past or 30 years in our future - this time travel stuff is designed to do your head in.
Now any devotee of time-travel stories will tell you that messing with time travel is bad voodoo because you are almost guaranteed to end up as your own grandfather. That scenario is about the only one that Looper does not toy with.
Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) knows that being a looper (the guys who do the donkey work in the past of shooting and disposing of the bodies sent from the future) is a dead-end job but the pay is good and he has an emergency escape plan, so what the heck. It all starts to unravel when old Joe (Bruce Willis) is beamed back for him to deal with. Joe sees his future and he is not impressed and old Joe can not believe that he was ever that dumb. What follows is a wild ride with violence and jumps of logic aplenty.
Best thing: Doing a Bruce Willis impersonation, and heavily made-up to foster the illusion, Gordon-Levitt gives a performance that is never a parody.
Worst thing: The future is so nasty and brutish it is impossible to feel much empathy for anyone.
See it with: A strong stomach and the ability to save your "but how come?" questions until afterwards.
- Christine Powley.
