Movie Review of Looper (2012)

I feel like I've just seen ten different movies, all wrapped up in the same two hours.  Yet it really worked.

There were moments when I was wilting - too many big guns, and people getting up when they had just been left for dead on the floor.  There were other times when I had my hand over my mouth, shocked at the audacity and horror of the storyline. 

Yet more scenes had me pressed back in my seat, hardly daring to breathe in case I disturbed the on-screen tension at the critical point.

It sucks you in, does Looper.  You are there with the characters, cringing, smiling, ready to blast to oblivion any SoB who gets between you and your child.  Then out comes the mob machismo and you can concentrate on eating your nachos again.

Like I said, it's more than one movie, so there's bound to be something for everyone.  And the ending will blow your mind.

Just like Inception, this is a movie where you have to pay attention. There are at least two concurrent story-lines occurring. I made it more.

You will possibly want more than one viewing, so you follow one or the other.  There will be details that are only caught when you know what you're looking for. 

However, it doesn't feel that confusing when you're watching it. It's only afterwards that kicks in.  It's when you realize that the two people sitting either side of you saw two different movies; and neither was the one that you saw.

The meat of the movie concerns what happens when the Mafia get time travel.  One mobster returned in time to recruit assassins.  It was easy to do, as society is more than a little rough in 2042 America.

Anyone who crosses the mob in 2072 is zapped back in time. They barely have a second to draw breath before, handcuffed and hooded, they are shot dead by the waiting hit-men.  Their murderers are the Loopers. 

But one day that man being killed will be yourself.  It's called 'closing the loop' and it's understood.

What is also understood are the consequences to not pulling that trigger, even against your older self.  I think I will be having nightmares for a while at the implications of what happened to one young Looper.

Joe knows this.  That is why, when his older self fights back, he is so determined to hunt him down and 'close the loop'.  But there are complications, not least that the older Joe has had thirty years more experience at this game, and an agenda of his own.

There's a sub-plot too, just to make life even more interesting.  A tenth of the population has evolved telekinesis.  By the second act of the movie, it's like flicking between The Godfather and Carrie.

But again, and I can't reiterate this enough - it works!

I recall coming out of the cinema after seeing Sixth Sense for the first time. There was a lot of emotional baggage and plot-line moment to assimilate there, but one thing shone with absolute clarity.  Haley Joel Osment was an amazing child actor.

I felt very much the same stepping out of the screening of Looper. Pierce Gagnon was just five years old when he filmed those scenes. He had extensive dialogue and he had to react to a lot of different situations.

Frankly, I was stunned by his acting. It was an astounding performance. I assumed that they had found a talented, but baby-faced and very short ten year old.  Though he did look a little too young.  Maybe more miracles rendered in the make up department?

No, Pierce Gagnon actually IS five years old.  Color me impressed.

On the subject of casting, there wasn't a dud anywhere in the credits. Everyone acted their hearts out and vied with one another to be the best. I should imagine that the Oscars are going to be peppered with many names from this film.

As an aside, and back to young Pierce, it amused the three of us to note that his character's name was Cid Harrington.  On behalf of my nephews and myself, I'd like to welcome him to our family.

The Bechdel Test asks that there are more than one named female characters.  They must have a conversation with each other; and that can't be about any of the male characters.

Looper had an extremely strong female lead in the second part of the movie. Sara Harrington was Feminism personified! 

She ran a farm and home by herself. She chopped wood, fixed machinery and single-handedly raised her child.  Cross her threshold and you are going to get a gun in your face.  She wasn't afraid to express her sexuality; face down assassins; nor get her hands dirty in a host of other ways.  Yet she was still decent in the kitchen too.

Wonderful!  But for the fact that she never once even saw another female character, let alone chatted with them.

The other two ladies were the stereotypical whore with a heart and doting angel-of-the-house wife.  They didn't meet each other either.

So Looper scored a total of one out of three in the Bechdel Test, which really isn't good enough given how low the bar is there.