Review: Looper

Plot:  In 2044 a collapsing worldwide economy causes social disintegration and an increase in organized crime.  Thirty years in the future, organized crime continues to dominate the national landscape and various crime syndicates add a new wrinkle to their arsenal--time travel.  Since modern tracking techniques have made it virtually impossible to dispose of a body, crime bosses send their targets back in time to 2074.  There they are removed by loopers, killers who meet at a certain place and time to kill the targets and then discretely dispose of them.  Loopers are paid lucratively but the extravagance comes at a cost.  Eventually every looper's loop is "closed" by sending the older version of the looper back in time to be killed by their younger selves.  They get a big payday and enjoy the next thirty years of their lives presumably.  One such looper is Joe Simmons (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who lives a life of fast cars, designer drugs, and casual sex.  Joe's life runs with the clockwork precision of his custom watch--until the day the older version of himself (Bruce Willis) arrives and escapes.  In the blink of an eye both Joes find themselves on the run from gangsters determined to eliminate them at all costs.

Review:  I wanted to like Looper.  I really did.  All the ingredients seemed to be there: a talented writer and director in Rian Johnson, an up and coming actor in Gordon-Levitt, a proven industry action star in Bruce Willis, and an intriguing science fiction time travel plot.  Unfortunately, just because you have all the right ingredients to bake a cake it doesn't always mean you're going to get a masterful pastry made by Florian Bellanger.  Sometimes the dough doesn't rise.
     Rather than being an action driven sci-fi thriller with some bite, Looper ends up being a disjointed, messy film whose pacing is more erratic than a Jim Harbaugh post game press conference.  The problem with Looper is that it can't quite decide what kind of film it wants to be.  While director Rian Johnson has done an excellent job in the past of crafting crime dramas such as Brick and The Brothers Bloom, he seems out of his element with Looper. 
     The first act of the film starts out strong.
Looper fluidly unveils Joe's empty everyday life, shows a gritty depiction of 2044, and sports a harrowing sequence where the younger version of Joe's friend and fellow Looper Seth (Paul Dano) is mutilated to bring his older version in.
     After the older Joe shows up however it all goes down hill.  The next forty five minutes or so of the movie involves the younger Joe holing up at a farm run by Sara Rollins (Emily Blunt) a single parent with a cliche troubled past.  While typically I think Blunt is a good actress her character was just annoying and the inevitable romance between her and Joe seems forced rather than natural. 
     Meanwhile the older Joe (Bruce Willis) is tracking down the young version of the "Rainmaker," a telekinetic crime boss from 2074 who killed Joe's wife.  Joe believes that if he can kill the child version of the "Rainmaker" he can prevent his wife from dying.  These scenes are particularly disturbing and are meant to be.  They create a nice break from the sheer boredom that occurs back at the farm.
     Typically I'm not one to nitpick about certain aspects of a film but too many things really annoyed me.  For one rather than have Gordon-Levitt look his natural self on camera, the producers put prosthetic makeup on him to make him look like a younger version of Bruce Willis.  I think this was a terrible decision by Johnson because too often Gordon-Levitt looks like he's doing a Robert DeNiro impression.  Loopers also carry a signature weapon called a blunderbuss; a gun that if you shoot it, anything within fifteen paces will die.  Not only is the name ridiculous it looks like something Wile E. Coyote might get from the Acme Company.  It seemed too cartoonish for stylized criminals.  Additionally there is an intricate relationship between a character named Kid Blue (Noah Segan) and Joe's boss Abe (Jeff Daniels).  Throughout the movie you are waiting for this big revelation about their relationship and it never materializes.  And as for the identity of the "Rainmaker"?  It's more obvious than than the moles on Mark Sanchez's face.
     Now I don't mean to sound like Looper is a total disaster because it's not.  Gordon-Levitt and Willis are excellent in this film, especially in the restaurant scene.  Jeff Daniels also steals every scene his in.  His portrayal of the cool and slick Abe is fantastic.  Abe doesn't go in for the whole "horse head in the bed" routine.  In fact he disdains theatrics and sees threats and torture as necessary evils that are almost annoying and get in the way of good business.  It's so unlike what you would expect from a typical gangster that I found myself wishing he was in more scenes.  I also enjoyed Steve Yedlin's cinematography and Nathan Johnson's score. 
     However well shot scenes and one memorable performance aren't enough to overcome jagged pacing, a shoddy plot, and a distinct lack of tone.  Looper isn't a terrible movie.  It's just extremely underwhelming.

My rating:  6/10