Bad, Happy Ending, Bad!
The Butterfly Effect is a much more interesting movie than I thought it'd be. Despite its logic holes, it's engrossing. But I gotta say, I think its ending(s) betrays it.
The opening nicely establishes Ashton Kutcher as a young man who's able to go back in time, via his own journals, to dire moments in his past-- moments when, as a child, he blacked out. Unable to help himself, Ashton returns to "correct" the past... irrevocably changing the future, and not for the better. So he has to go back, and back, and back, until he can "get it perfect". His father-- who's in an asylum and seems to have mastered this memory-travel too-- warns Ashton there is no "perfect". You can't play God. But still, Ashton has to try, creating ever more heartbreaking outcomes for his girlfriend, his friends, his mother, and himself, in the future.
Great. Here's where the ending goes awry. The theatrical release of the film has Ashton going back-- via home movies instead of his journals, and to a point in time in which he hadn't blacked out, but whatever-- to ensure he and his girlfriend never become friends at all. When he returns to the future, they don't know each other... but both their lives are fancy-dandy. We even see, in memory-like flashes, the great life she ended up living instead of one with him-- I'm not sure how we suddenly get to see her memories, but again, whatever. It's a happy ending-- the couple isn't together, but they're both happy. Ashton wins.
Whaaat? Then what, she asks, is this movie about? Is the movie actually suggesting that one can play God, if one is just persistent and clever enough? Is that supposed to give me that feel-good feeling? This ending very cleanly betrays both the theme of the story, and the protagonist. The character winning without ever having to learn the "you can't play God" thing just seems wrong. How can I be on side with him if his vanity and obsession are proven to be good things?
The director's cut of the film ends differently: Ashton, knowing he's at the heart of all the things that go wrong in his loved ones' lives, returns to the womb and strangles himself with his umbilical cord. Okay, better. But... isn't he still just playing God and winning?
What if he, I dunno, had to actually grow up? Recognize that life is about paying your money and taking your chances? What if he at some point had to decide to quit-- to stop going back, and accept the current future, with its wins and losses? For example, the future with the worst outcomes for Ashton himself has him a multiple amputee, in a wheelchair, and loveless. Oh, and his mother's dying of lung cancer. But everyone else in this future is doing extremely well, and his mother begs Ashton not to try to change anything. What if Ashton's greatest sacrifice had been for him to actually live with one of the futures he orchestrated-- the one that includes good and bad, but mostly good?
What if the film had allowed the ending to be as complex as the rest of the story?
The Butterfly Effect is a much more interesting movie than I thought it'd be. Despite its logic holes, it's engrossing. But I gotta say, I think its ending(s) betrays it.
The opening nicely establishes Ashton Kutcher as a young man who's able to go back in time, via his own journals, to dire moments in his past-- moments when, as a child, he blacked out. Unable to help himself, Ashton returns to "correct" the past... irrevocably changing the future, and not for the better. So he has to go back, and back, and back, until he can "get it perfect". His father-- who's in an asylum and seems to have mastered this memory-travel too-- warns Ashton there is no "perfect". You can't play God. But still, Ashton has to try, creating ever more heartbreaking outcomes for his girlfriend, his friends, his mother, and himself, in the future.
Great. Here's where the ending goes awry. The theatrical release of the film has Ashton going back-- via home movies instead of his journals, and to a point in time in which he hadn't blacked out, but whatever-- to ensure he and his girlfriend never become friends at all. When he returns to the future, they don't know each other... but both their lives are fancy-dandy. We even see, in memory-like flashes, the great life she ended up living instead of one with him-- I'm not sure how we suddenly get to see her memories, but again, whatever. It's a happy ending-- the couple isn't together, but they're both happy. Ashton wins.
Whaaat? Then what, she asks, is this movie about? Is the movie actually suggesting that one can play God, if one is just persistent and clever enough? Is that supposed to give me that feel-good feeling? This ending very cleanly betrays both the theme of the story, and the protagonist. The character winning without ever having to learn the "you can't play God" thing just seems wrong. How can I be on side with him if his vanity and obsession are proven to be good things?
The director's cut of the film ends differently: Ashton, knowing he's at the heart of all the things that go wrong in his loved ones' lives, returns to the womb and strangles himself with his umbilical cord. Okay, better. But... isn't he still just playing God and winning?
What if he, I dunno, had to actually grow up? Recognize that life is about paying your money and taking your chances? What if he at some point had to decide to quit-- to stop going back, and accept the current future, with its wins and losses? For example, the future with the worst outcomes for Ashton himself has him a multiple amputee, in a wheelchair, and loveless. Oh, and his mother's dying of lung cancer. But everyone else in this future is doing extremely well, and his mother begs Ashton not to try to change anything. What if Ashton's greatest sacrifice had been for him to actually live with one of the futures he orchestrated-- the one that includes good and bad, but mostly good?
What if the film had allowed the ending to be as complex as the rest of the story?
posted by Jennica at 11:47 p.m.
2 Comments:
Good point re: Ashton and the girl... Kayleigh. I guess I could buy this argument if I thought the desire to be with her drove all his actions, but I didn't really feel like the emphasis was on her entirely... in the first (fairly decent) future/present, he's not in touch with her, and is okay. And then, in the one where he's an amputee, I actually feel like he's more concerned with his own losses, and his mother's cancer, than he is jealous of Kayleigh and the other friend being together. So, does he want to be with her, or does he just want to save her, along with everyone else? I didn't feel like the ending was played unhappily at all... we've seen flashes of her current life, and it seems to be happy beyond the material... and I believe he's talking to a special someone on the phone, suggesting he's got love/happiness in his life. What do you think? Did you actually buy that it was all Kayleigh-driven? Maybe if it went that way consistently instead of the more general "saving everybody" way, I'd have been more satisfied...
Please, stir away! What's the point of it all if there's no stirring?
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