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
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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
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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