Written and Directed by Rian Johnson
Starring, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels
I have a piece of advice for you before you watch this movie: don’t worry if you can’t completely follow the plot because by the end it won’t matter. This is not really a spoiler so much as a soother. I spent most of the first hour working very hard at a task that was not necessary and probably impossible.
PLOT: Time travel becomes possible by 2074. It is immediately outlawed, but a crime syndicate uses it to rid themselves of troublesome people. These bothersome people are sent back in time to 2044 where they are eliminated by people known as loopers. The technique is simple: a message is sent, the looper goes out to a field with a shotgun in hand, the troublesome person materializes bound and hooded and is immediately disposed of. Loopers earn a nice living from the gold cars the victim carries on his back.
This tidy process is disrupted when Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is assigned the disposal of his future self (Willis). This is called closing the loop and Joe hesitates when his future self turns up unhooded. Old Joe has a special mission of his own. He is determined to find the younger version of someone who will cause great trouble in the future: The Rainmaker. Several children fit this bill. One of them is the child of Sara (Emily Blunt).
You don’t really want to know any more than this. Part of the fun, and it is fun, is seeing the unexpected places this film goes. I haven’t even begun to tell you about looper culture or the many action scenes as young Joe and old Joe go up against the powers that be. It is a slick, smart film that you are bound (although not physically) to enjoy. Highly recommended.
Patti
Be sure to stop by http://www.pattinase.blogspot.com/ to check out Forgotten Books every Friday as well as other thoughts, comments and reviews. A collection of her stories, Monkey Justice (Snubnose Press) can be found on Amazon