The Butterfly Effect on late nights.

Im a firm believer that the later the time of night, the better the film becomes. Your mind works differently past midnight, your more prone and more open to watch any old rubbish that comes on TV as long as it means your not giving into sleep. Its how I feel anyway. Laura last night asked me if I thought The Butterfly Effect was any good as it was on the TV and she wanted to watch it, and I had to say to her I wasnt sure as I hadnt seen it in a long time. it spurred me into an instant movie watching state of mind and suddenly I felt tempted to watch The Butterfly Effect again.

The last time I watched it was pretty unsuccessful. It was at university, with four of my seven flatmates all crowded round our 14 inch TV sitting on waiting room chairs in our halls of residence flat. I was keen to see it, but with four girls sitting round me, it was hard to concentrate and took in as much as I could. But I still got confused.

Last night was much more successful.

I was by myself in my silent room. A must if your going to watch a late night movie. Company isnt allowed. You cant have the computer on either. It just distracts you. I made sure I had turned it off before beginning the movie because no doubt, I would have sat for two hours with one eye on the movie, the other on my facebook home page where nothing would have happened anyway, but by god I wasnt going to miss when it did. So I lay down on my bed and turned on the TV.

I was a bit confused by the beginning. Firstly cause this wasnt how I remembered it beginning. (To be honest, the only thing I did remember from my first viewing was Ashton Kutchers crazy run/coasting fall down the corridor at the end of the film) and secondly, wasnt Ashton Kutcher supposed to be in this film? Where is he? Hes the pull! It plays out like Stand By Me at the beginning. Four friends hang out all summer. Evan with ridiculously fashionable hair for such a young boy - the cool one. Kayley, the girl from the wrong side of the tracks who just wants everyone to get along - the nice one. Tommy, Kayleys brother, troublemaker and bully - the bad one. And Lenny, scared of everything, including himself. Likes to build model airplanes - the weird one.

One day the four kids are bored and do something that goes wrong. Disastrously wrong. This incident becomes the central point of the story. Everything that happens in all their futures will be because of this one moment. Pretty simple stuff. The film drags for about an hour as you learn about the four kids and their different lives. It only really picks up the pace when Kutcher eventually appears. Im going to be different here and say I like Ashton Kutcher. I really like him in this film. Hes not an excellent actor, I can never see him winning major awards or critical acclaim but he holds his own as the grown up Evan who finds out he can time travel back to pivotal moments in his childhood through his journals. The middle act of The Butterfly Effect is really what is good about it. The revelation that not only can Evan time travel back, but he can change the future with what he changes in his past is a great hook for any film. Kutcher makes Evan a likeable guy when he tries to help Kayley out of the rut shes living in when he travels back in time to stop her father abusing her. We soon find out though that whatever he changes for the good in the past, he changes something for the worst in the future.

It would have been good for the writers to just stop with the premise there. Its when they continue down the road of Evan changing the past that the film gets ridiculous. We begin to see Evans alternate universes. One where he ends up in prison and has to convince his cellmate that hes the second coming so he will help him out. It was at this point I began to wonder where this film was going. How could this film honestly travel down this route any further? It manages to realise this just in time and maybe, just maybe saves the idea before the end.

The ending is a little to wishy washy and far fetched for me. It never felt like the kind of film where we were going to see everyone happy. Its a dark film with light humourous undertones which stops it from becoming to serious. Ethan Suplee as Evans huge goth roommate, Thumper is a great example of this. I felt a bit cheated by the end. It felt rushed and forced. For me, I would have preferred it to end either a little less happy or maybe five to ten minutes before it did.

Overall I enjoyed it. The sections about the four kids have a great nostalgia/coming of age feel about them, and even if it isnt really executed well, its fun to see the characters change in each alternate universe. A great late night movie. But hey, its late night. Everythings great past midnight.