September 29, 2012 -- Time travel stories come in all colors, from the playful (“Back to the Future” and “Groundhog Day”) to very serious and confusing (“Time Crimes” and “Primer”). This latest time travel movie is both serious and depressing. Instead of examining the almost infinite possibilities of time travel, it narrows its focus down to a situation where there are there are few choices and they are all bad.

This is not to say the movie is entirely serious, there is some humor in it, including a wry look at a future where the NRA gets its way and everybody is packing heat, resulting in a whole lot of shootings from everyday disagreements and petty crimes. In this dystopian future where time travel is outlawed, only outlaws have time machines. One of the uses of these time machines is to kill people and hide the bodies in the past. In the future, it is more difficult to dispose of bodies, although that doesn't seem to be lowering the crime rate.

The hit men who carry out these kill and disposal jobs are called loopers. They live in the past and kill people sent to them from the future. Joe (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt of “Inception”) is a looper who has had enough of this life. He is saving up enough money to retire when he starts hearing disturbing stories about loopers killing their future selves. The way it works is the looper is ordered to kill a person from the future and it turns out to be the looper himself, aged 30 years older, with a hood over his head. This is called “closing the loop.” It seems that a mysterious mastermind named the “Rainmaker” has decided to close all the loops for all the loopers. If your loop is closed, you know how old you are going to be when you die.

Sure enough, one day, Joe discovers that he has closed his own loop. He kills his future self (played by Bruce Willis of “The Expendables 2”). But since this is a time travel story, it isn't that simple. In another branch of the timeline, Joe's future self escapes and causes all kinds of trouble. Old Joe is angry because his wife is killed by loopers who come to collect him, so he time travels back to the past to find and kill the Rainmaker in the hope that will save his wife from being killed in the future.

Young Joe resents old Joe, who is messing up his life. He tries to work out a deal with Old Joe, but that doesn't work. Old Joe is determined to kill the young boy who is destined to become the Rainmaker. It becomes a desperate chase to see who can get to the Rainmaker first. Young Joe decides he must kill old Joe, closing the loop. Both young and old Joe are on the run from crime bosses too for breaking the mob rules of time travel. Young Joe ends up on a rural farm occupied by Sarah (Emily Blunt of “The Adjustment Bureau”). There he waits for the final showdown.

The story is gritty and bloody. It offers up a grim view of life in a dystopian future. The film is definitely a downer, but it is not without its positive, humanistic aspects as well. Joe may be a killer, but he is also a lover. He has some regard for human life and he is capable of self-sacrifice and mercy. It is a good film, but I do prefer movies that are not quite as grim and depressing as this. This film rates a B.

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Copyright © 2012 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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