Looper (5/5 Stars)

“Time Machine” by Simon Rich:

As soon as my time machine was finished, I traveled back to 1890, so I could kill Hitler before he was old enough to commit any of his horrible crimes. It wasn’t as gratifying as I thought it would be.

           

-       Oh my God. You killed a baby.

-       Yes…but the baby was Hitler

-       Who?

-       Hitler. It’s…complicated.

-       Officer? This man just killed a baby

“Looper” written and directed by Rian Johnson and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, is the rare movie that is far more interesting than its title or even its marketing campaign lets on. It is being sold as a movie about time travel in which Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a mob hit man named Joe. Joe lives in the year 2044. Time travel has not been invented yet, but thirty years later, it will have been. The mob in the future of 2074 uses time travel as a convenient way to get rid of people. They send them back in time to 2044 where Joe is waiting to kill them instantly in the middle of a Kansas cornfield. Joe is called a Looper. The odd name comes from the understanding that in order to get rid of all the evidence, the mob will one day send the future version of him back in time for Joe to kill. This is called “closing the loop” and is akin to being fired. Old Joe gets sent back with a bag over his head and his hands tied behind his back; Young Joe shoots himself and collects his severance package, many gold bars strapped to Old Joe’s back.

There is a complication however when Old Joe comes back to be killed. He doesn’t have the bag over his head and he isn’t tied up. Young Joe recognizes himself (btw Joseph Gordon-Levitt with a prosthetic nose does a rather good Bruce Willis impression), hesitates, and Old Joe gets away. In the trailer they allude to a chase and this is about it. What this leaves out however are two very good questions and answers that make this seemingly normal run-of-the-mill action movie one of the best movies of the year. The first question is why does Young Joe want to kill Old Joe instead of just helping him escape? The second question is why has Old Joe come back to the past without a bag on his head or tied up? If he had gotten the best of his captors in the future, why would he send himself to the past at all if he knows that his younger self is waiting there to kill him?

The first question is answered within the first twenty minutes and so I will give away the entire thing. For demonstration purposes, a fellow Looper, played by Paul Dano, lets his old self get away. The mafia reacts by kidnapping Young Dano and holding his body parts for ransom. There is a truly terrifying scene where Old Dano is escaping on the outskirts of the city when all of sudden he experiences a scar being written on his arm. It states to be at a certain address in fifteen minutes. Then Old Dano’s fingers start disappearing just in case Old Dano didn’t get the point. Old Dano races back as he loses his fingers, toes, nose, feet, and arms. He gets to the address with basically just his torso. A door to a warehouse opens revealing the mob, a saw, quite a lot of blood, and what is left of Young Dano. Yes, young Joe is reasonably motivated to track down and kill Old Joe before the mob tracks him down and does the same thing to him.

The second question is what really sets this movie on a level of greatness. I won’t be giving away too much by simply stating the premise. Old Joe has come back on a Terminator-in-reverse style of mission. Armed with only a birth-date and a hospital, he is tracking down the five-year-old version of a future Hitler nicknamed “The Rainmaker.” His mission is to kill every child with that birth-date from that hospital in order to save his wife who was killed in the wake of many other untold deaths. Young Joe figures it out the plan and stakes out the last house on Old Joe's list. What a moral conundrum! Young Joe is a killer and drug addict and Old Joe is sober and reformed, but that does not allow one to forget the fact that Old Joe is going around killing children! How that turns out, well, you will just have to find out, but ask yourself this one question before you walk into the theater: How do you want it to turn out?

There is a tendency for movie critics to withhold praise from a movie when it reminds them of movies that they have already seen. For instance you can see the futuristic dystopia projected in “Looper” and be reminded of “Blade Runner.” Or you can see the parallels of the time travel mission in “The Terminator.” Or you can recognize the weird sensation of seeing an older version of yourself being killed from “Twelve Monkeys” (with Bruce Willis!) or if you wanted to go back even further, “Le Jetee.” In this way, critics tend to take away credit from movies that are made in our time in order to bolster the reputation of films of the old ones. I don’t want to detract from “Blade Runner,” “The Terminator,” or “Twelve Monkeys,” (I haven’t seen Le Jetee although lord knows it keeps getting mentioned when movies like these are made) but just because a movie that is made today that has some similarities it should not amplify the worth of a previous movie because now it is all “Influential.” In the same way the similarities should not detract from the current movie because it was all “Influenced." I guess what I’m saying is that “Looper” is better than “Blade Runner.” I’ve seen both and do not particularly care that the better one draws from the previous one. And there is plenty in “Looper” that is original enough that I would suggest that Rian Johnson get an Oscar Nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Speaking of nominations, I think it is about time that Bruce Willis got one. This could be the year given he has had two great performances already, (I recommend the nomination for “Moonrise Kingdom.”) And Joseph Gordon-Levitt although perhaps not yet earning such a distinction, is fast becoming noticeable for his DiCaprio-esque ability to show up in a multitude of good to great movies. Look at IMDB and see where he will show up this year. “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Premium Rush,” “Looper,” “Lincoln,” “Django Unchained.” That is pretty impressive.  What can definitely be said about both of these actors is that they truly know how to share a screen. “Looper” is definitely an ensemble picture that engages the audience with multiple well-rounded characters. Paul Dano has an unforgettable part that lasts only about ten minutes. Then there is Jeff Daniels as “Abe” the mob boss from the future who instills a comedic been-there done-that fatalism to his persona. Finally there is boy Hitler, a five year old played by Pierce Gagnon, who can, dare I say, really act.

If there was an award for “Most Understated Title for  a Great Movie,” I think “Looper” would be a lock for that one as well.