"The Butterfly effect" review

I've just watched this film several hours ago and I was extremely touched. There are a number of compliments as well as criticism for this film. However, in my opnion, it is worth watching due to its non-linear structure and brilliant performance.

The Butterfly effect (2004)

Written and Directed by Eric Bress J. Mackye Gruber
Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Kevin Schmidt, Melora Walters, Elden Henson, Eric Stoltz...

Since I have watched many non-linear movies like this, I was not so surprised when watching this film. But it gives me a very strange feeling: depressed, sad, chaotic, haunting and empty. It is one of those movies that just catch your eye and at the beginning, you might think "Ok, this is strange, I want to watch something else" but as long as it goes on, it turns to be harder and harder to look away from the screen.

When a kid, Evan Treborn suffered his sickness of losing some parts of his memory. There were a lot of things that happened to him: being abused in the house of 2 best friends, nearly killed by his father, and so on. So when he moved town with his mother, Evan's memories seemed to be much better, he had not lost memory for 7 years. At the age of twenty, however, Evan finds that reading entries from his childhood journals can help him to transport himself back to those forgotten memories, and can even change them before returning to the present. Evan tries to 'fix' things in his past so that he and his old best friends can have happier lives. However, he soon learns that even the tiniest change of the past can lead to greatly unpredictable consequences for the present. That is the meaning of "the butterfly effect"- only one slight thing in the past can change the whole world in the future.

In the very end of the film, Evan returns to the first time he met Kayleigh and ignores her to make her hate him. That is because he wants to protect her from being hurt or sorrowful when besides Evan. Years after years, they both become successful people, pass each other on the street, but keep on walking. I like the end since it brings audiences to an uncomplete feeling and makes them think of the film for a while.

The movie has a special and interesting story on psychology. As well as it plays on the theory of Butterfly Effect which is stated in the very beginning of the movie "If a butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the world, the ripple effect could cause a tempest on the other". The sound is also great, it makes me freak out all the time. As the main theme is dramatic, the sound of him blacking out turns to be dynamites exploding. The casting is extremely good, I think that is the best film ever Ashton Kutcher has acted. Amy Smart plays versatilely and cleverly when turning to be different characteristics in the future: a college girl, a service girl, a prostitute, etc. Every figure that she plays has its own soul and inner feeling. Besides that, it surely has full of inappropriate languages, but most of the films today do. And behind these dirty languages, there are a chaotic and real life expecting and happening everyday in the world.