Looper (R)

        A thrilling and mind-bending science fiction film, Looper keeps viewers on their toes with confusing time travel and a plot that is constantly twisting and turning. This film was not only enjoyable but also thought-provoking. A win for co-stars Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt alike, I would recommend Looper to anyone searching for a skillfully made and captivating movie.
         Looper takes place in the year 2044 where time travel has yet to be invented. Howecer, in thirty years it will be and the mob is using this to their advantage. Looper's protagonist, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), is a employee of the mob known as a Looper. Whenever the mob wishes to take an enemy out of the picture, they send their victim thirty years into the past where a Looper such as Joe waits to shoot him or her and dispose of the body. Joe is happy with his job's pay until one day his victim is none other than his older self (Bruce Willis).  Now on the run from the mob and searching for his older self, Joe discovers that before he was sent back in time, the older Joe's wife was shot by the mob. Now Joe Senior is on a quest to find the Rainmaker, the head of the mob in the future, as a child and kill him so that his wife never dies. Meanwhile the younger Joe finds the Rainmaker, a child named Cid (Pierce Gagnon) and his mother Sara (Emily Blunt) living on a small farm in the Kansas countryside. Joe realizes that Cid is an extremely powerful telekinetic who can kill if he looses control of his powers. Looper draws to an epic conclusion as the mob, the overwhelmed young Joe, bloodstained older Joe, and the unstable and angry Cid converge at Sara's farm.

Joe holds his younger self hostage

            As a science fiction fan, I enjoyed Looper. Some parts of this film caused the viewer to stop and think which means that the plot was well thought out. Writer and director Rian Johnson handled Looper very well and made sure that it was the best it could be. Throughout the film, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis did their best to act as mirrors of one another. They succeeded. I was very impressed with Gordon-Levitt as he had Willis's mannerisms down so that he was a convincing younger version of Bruce Willis. Even the way Gordon-Levitt spoke was identical to Willis's own  articulation. Contributing to this was Gordon-Levitt's makeup artist, Jamie Kelman. Kelman made several small changes to Gordon-Levitt's face such as enlarging his nose and thinning his upper lip in order to make him look like Bruce Willis.
            One of the actors that gave a stunning performance in Looper is Pierce Gagnon who played Cid. As  a telekinetic and a boy genius, Cid is extremely powerful for a ten year old. Gagnon's skillful acting at such a young age blew me away. This acting was so convincing that when Cid was angry, I was genuinely scared of this small child. Having a character such as Cid played by such a talented actor made it difficult for me to decide whether I wanted Cid, Sara, and young Joe or Joe Senior to come out on top.
             Looper won the Austin Film Critics Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Critic's Choice Award for Best Scifi/Horror Movie. Both of these awards were well deserved and writer/director Rian Johnson should be proud of creating such an excellent piece of work. I certainly would recommend Looper to anyone and I rate it a 4 out of 5 stars. Thank you very much for reading.


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