LOOPER

It has Bruce Willis as a time-travelling mobster and Emily Blunt trying to keep up – a great combination for fans of confusing narratives

Having been hailed as The Matrix of this decade, there's a lot of expectation and hype surrounding Looper. In this new sci-fi thriller, set in 2044, Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, a man who works for a mob that exists 30 years further
into the future (2074).

Time travel hasn't been invented in Joe's real time but it has in the mob's – and they use it to dispose of troublesome people by sending them back to Joe for 'elimination' because they have gathered too much information about their employer.

The catch is that at some point the mob will 'close the loop' by sending Joe's future self (Bruce Willis) back for Joe's present self to kill. Confused? You're not alone.

The main flaw in Looper is the middle section, which despite writing this eight hours after watching it, I can't remember. There are 20 minutes that could be cut and one scene involving Bruce Willis that isn't nearly as harrowing as it could be. The best things about the fi lm are Sara (Emily Blunt) and her son Cid (Pierce Gagnon).

Blunt hasn't put a foot wrong in her career and her performance in this doesn't disappoint. She takes the Texan mother with a secret in her stride as the present Joe enters her life with a warning that future Joe is after her son. More confused? I did warn you.

For someone so young, Gagnon's performance is astounding, and it shows in a scene (one of the best) that starts with him falling down the stairs. Another brilliant thing is the difference between present Joe and future Joe. The lack of understanding between the two has comical moments but you can feel the frustration from both.

If you're expecting constant action then Looper isn't going to cut it. By action-film standards it's a quiet one, with bursts until Bruce Willis springs into life half an hour before the end, and even then he's just Bruce Willis being Bruce Willis.

The basic concept is solid but the storyline is really quite mad, and while the differences between two people who are the same person might make interesting viewing, this film just doesn't hold up. Despite great attention to detail in the background, the work hasn't been put into the main storyline and Looper suffers as a result.