Page 8 The Behrend Beacon The 'Butterfly' debate review by Daniel J. Stasiewski managing editor A few weeks ago. a rumor that Ashton Kutcher had heen forced from his role in Cameron Crowe's next film "Elizabethtown - (scheduled for 2005) had become the talk of Hollywood. Tinseltown gossip said that he got the hoot for had acting. After sitting through Kutcher's impotent. MTV vle thriller "The Butterfly Effect, - the rumor is even harder to ignore K utcher's acting isn't the worst part of the film, though it does make his unlikable character even harder to empathize with. "The Butterfly Effect'' becomes tiresome and contrived, instead, because the filmmakers attempt to outsmart their audience with far-out plot twists, resulting in a film with so many plot holes it might as well be a colander. In "Butterfly," Kutcher plays Evan Treborn, who we first meet as he's attempting to "escape" from a mental institution. After he finishes writing a let ter. making sure to read it aloud just so no one in the audience has to read or worse, ponder, the film flashes hack 13 years when he was sane and his life was only troubled by the lack of a father. Back then. his father was in a mental institution, and Trehorn's mother (Melora Waters) suspected her son's blackouts were going to lead him to he in stitutionalized. as well. Both Trehorn's mother and doctor decided the hoy should visit his father for stress reduction, which would have been fine if his father didn't try to strangle him. Treborn blacked out during most of the incident, just as he did when he was forced into performing a sex act on camera for a friend's father. After a few more character-build ing incidents, like blowing up a woman and her infant child, the film makes its way hack to Trehorn as an adult, or more precisely a college student, presumably before he goes crazy. Trehorn. a psych major, attempts to figure out why he blacks out and luckily he can reflect on his past through 13 years of journals. He can eas ily go hack and read about the various incidents. >ne reading. however, makes Trehorn think he can actually relive his memories and change the past. Trehorn even attempts to contact his childhood friend Sally Amy Smart) to see if what he pre sumes to he molestation by her father actually occurred. Sadly, repeated sexual assaults wore down the girl's strength. When Trehorn makes her remember one more time, she kills herself. The Good Samaritan can't let a suicide he insti gated stand, especially when he can time travel. He goes hack to the molestation memory, sets the father straight, and when he comes hack, he's sleeping in bed with Sally. The past, however. doesn't like to he changed and Trehorn has to fix 11.1 ( 17'1" 7A CFO i X 141 4)6-12611 i [2 111 Mon- [hurl 2- I 2 I. r -Sat 11,44 Law*. Tattoo Shop On The Vast Comm: I'7 tHi wtollt !-Pdatikiiii II ) Iv., the present repeatedly, each time making it worse and worse Too much worse, actually. In "The Butterfly Ef fect,- the present is always so screwed up the char acters are forced to become prostitutes and prison bitches. Treborn's mother even gets cancer in one reworked present. Behind Treborn's attempts to create a Utopian world, there's an overwhelming sense of selfishness. It's almost as if the filmmak ers wanted Treborn to possess the quali ties of a genius who is driven mad by his own brilliance, but Kutcher doesn't make his power feel like a burden. The only time Kutcher's believable is when he's wearing Greek letters on his chest and screwing Smart's character. He's unbearably flimsy as a dramatic actor, especially when he's so keen to make his "Dude, Where's My Car?" persona break out in this film. The audi ence even has a hard time taking him seri ously. At the screen ing I attended, one of Kutcher's "dramatic" moments resulted in a theater full of laughter. No one else in the cast is truly worth mentioning, all of them being too "Saved by the Bell" for their per formances as broken humans to feel genuine. They lack the grittiness that brought Halle Berry the Os car for "Monster's Ball," letting their own preoc cupation with their status as the future of Holly wood to take charge. "The Butterfly Effect" has one flashback that takes place while Treborn and his childhood pals are watching David Fincher's thriller "Se7en." Ironic, considering this film is like a watered down, de-mystified version of any psychological thriller that is too contrived to even be compared to a Fincher film. The concept may have succeeded with experienced screenwriters and directors, but this film doesn't have even the appeal of bad epi sode of "The Twilight Zone." 4-10 Nun 14 ,, Ft . ir ti. a i ii litllt" Friday, January 30, 2004 Aston Kutcher takes a shot a dramatic acting in "The Butterfly Effect." review by Erika Jarvis If you are looking for a feel-good movie this winter, you won't find it in "The Butterfly Effect." As Ashton Kutcher grows a beard, it seems that he appears to be shying away from the goofball, trucker hat-wearing image he has created for himself. and regurgitating what Dan has already told you about the movie, plot wise, would be a waste of space. Instead, I could simply state how Kutcher is plain old hot in "Butterfly." Well, that's stating the obvious and my objective in this article is to tell you why I liked this movie and to get you to go see it. If I don't do a good enough job, Kutcher's looks might just get you to shell out eight bucks. Kutcher's main goal in "Butterfly" is to change his past to make sure his future is better. Yet, as the first frame of the movie tells the audience supposedly, the flap of a butterfly's wings on one side of the earth can effect the lives of others on the opposite side. As Kutcher EVENT SPOTLIGHT Shot subjectively, the film follows the character Kevin as he uses his digital camcorder to capture a day with his friend Eugene for a film class. Eugene is, to put it nicely, a big loser who is still lamenting over the breakup with his ex, simply called "Bitch." During the day Eugene falls for a new, perfect girl, loses her, and tries to get her back. The catch is Kevin has always filmed his friends, so the narrative is supported by flashbacks of Eugene's life with Bitch, a grand jury testimony and "the incident." WINNER BEST FEATURE LENGTH COMEDY Motion Picture Commission of Pittsburgh's 2003 Fall Film Festival a&e editor "T he Butterfly Effect" is Kutcher's first stab at becoming a serious actor. A lot of talk has been going around about Kutcher breaking out of his many roles as the "funny This is guy." Kutcher's first attempt and probably won't be his last. I am not sure how the script for "The Butterfly Effect" landed in Kutcher's lap, but quite honestly, I'm glad he got the part. I'm not going to sit here through 700 words and tell you how this was the most amazing movie I have ever seen, but I'm not going to pan it. Sitting here SCREEN VISIONS INDEPENDENT FILM SERIES Presents WHY WE HAD TO KILL BITCH Daniel J. Stasiewski, Erika Jarvis a & e editors goes through a series of trials and errors in his past to rectify his future, the same thing occurs. Changing the past dramatically effects his future, unfortunately not for the better. Yet, as he goes through these trips to the past not only do you empathize with him, you are so drawn in that you don't immediately notice that the plot is incredibly far-fetched. Obviously, there is no way that by reading a journal of his childhood activities that he can be taken back to the time of his blackouts and change the events that occurred. It is the scenes in which Kutcher is emotionally drained by his decisions to rectify the events in his life that also drain the audience emotionally. I can honestly say that I have never seen a movie before where after the movie was over, my friends and I sat in the audience just amazed. The roller coaster that the audience is taken on is one that compares to the ones at Cedar Point. As Kutcher realizes the past and lives are not something to toy with, he finally comes to realize how he can go about changing things for the better. After careful thinking it is easy to see that after almost two hours that had the director not been careful, the movie could have gone on for hours. With the flash backs so often in the movie there are many scenes in the movie in which Kutcher is not seen. Yet, his character is seen at multiple ages 7, 13 and themagain sometime during college. It is the building of the plot early in the movie that helps the audience catch up to Kutcher in college. Later when Kutcher is seen changing his past, he also changes the future of the other characters in the movie. He changes his past to leave him a paraplegic, diagnose his mother with lung cancer, and even changes his childhood friend, Sally, into a heroin addict. The scary part about seeing all of this is you start to think: What would have happened differently in my life had I didn't do this ... or what would have happened if I didn't do that. The movie might not he appealing to all, especially my counterpart. Yet under all the not so-Oscar-worthy acting there is a plot that makes you think. The movie couldn't have been that bad. It opened at No. 1 in the box office. Maybe it was Kutcher's model looks that brought the audience to the theaters, but what ever it was, it got them there. No matter what it is, this movie has people talking. As the saying goes, there's no such thing as had press. featuring a QaA session with director JP Nickel behrcolls@aol.com
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