Looper (2012) * * *

 

Directed by:  Rian Johnson

Starring:  Joseph Gordon Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, Pierce Gagnon, Summer Qing, Paul Dano

Looper is a futuristic time-travel picture (which already piques my interest) and shakes it up with one paradox and conundrum after another.  Looper takes place in 2044 and 2074, where we see the evolution of Joe (Levitt), a hitman who overcomes a drug addiction and by 2074 is living in Shanghai with a wife whom he credits for saving him from certain death.  However, soon she is killed by an unseen crime kingpin known as The Rainmaker, who has taken over control of all criminal activity and uses the now-banned time travel to conduct his assassinations.  

The Rainmaker is no ordinary crime lord.  He has vast psychic powers which allow him to wreak havoc on wherever he chooses.  Here's how the assassination stuff works:  Joe from 2044 waits in a cornfield at a specified place where time travelers from the future are deposited through a time loop.  They are hooded, and Joe quickly blows them away with a shotgun.  One day, though, an unhooded man comes through.  Joe quickly determines the man is the older version of himself.  Old Joe (Willis) commandeered the time loop to travel back in time to kill a kid he believes will grow up to become The Rainmaker.  Joe doesn't kill Old Joe, but instead they sit in a nearby diner and essentially lay out their intentions.  Old Joe is here to kill The Rainmaker before he has a chance to become The Rainmaker.  Joe will stay out of his way as much as he can, until he comes to realize the young woman who owns the cornfield where Joe commits his murders has a son who must be...

Joe falls for Sara (Blunt), who lives with her son Cid (Gagnon).  Cid creates psychic chaos when he's angry and only his mother can calm him down enough to stop him.  He's the future Rainmaker alright, and Joe now has to stop his older self from killing Cid, damn the consequences.  The romance between Sara and Joe feels forced, as if it just had to be thrown in there by writer-director Rian Johnson, but Looper doesn't necessarily revel in the paradoxes of your average time travel movie.  Old Joe wants to preserve his life and bring his wife back and while he takes no pleasure in having to kill a child to do so, he does what he must.  Joe is struggling with drug addiction who finds Sara may be his own way out of the life he has created.  Johnson gives both Joes love interests who are seen by the men as saviors.  

The conclusion is both unexpected and practical.  Joe views how the situation will play out as he sees Old Joe with his gun pointed at Sara and realizes there is one way to solve this dilemma.  Johnson deserves credit for taking the story where it goes and having the courage not to shoehorn in a happy ending where none is required.