Time-travel caper with brains is brilliant fun

Columnist and film writer

Thursday 27 September 2012

Looper (15)

IDENTITY CRISIS: Joseph Gordon-Levitt performs under a layer of thick make-up as a hitman whose latest assigned target turns out to be his older self, played by Bruce Willis, sent back from the future.

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Classic action turn from Bruce Willis seals the deal, says Alison Rowat

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Dir: Rian Johnson

With: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt

Runtime: 118 minutes

TWO years ago, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was among the stars of Christopher Nolan's Inception, a brain scrambler of a movie about the power of dreams. Here, he takes the lead in Looper, a time-travel caper that has more twists and turns than a chief whip's apology. Gordon-Levitt must like being confused.

You will be delighted to join him for what is one of the smartest pictures of the year. Like all good logic-twisters, Looper doesn't bear too much analysis, though doubtless it will be subjected to such by the fanboy crowd. What we have here is a simple enough deal: if you are in the mood for action, innovation, a few laughs, and the best Bruce Willis turn since Pulp Fiction, try Looper.Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, a hitman for the Mob in America, 2044. Unlike in last week's Mob movie, Killing Them Softly, "whacking" has become a far more impersonal business due to the introduction of time travel. The wiseguys of the distant future, 2074, don't kill their enemies personally. Given the advances in crime detection, that would be too risky. Instead, they use a time-travel machine to send the whack-ees back 30 years, where Joe and his ilk are waiting with shotguns. It's a sale-and-no-return policy. Joe is a mere hired gun in an America generally going to the bad. He and his friends, including Paul Dano's Seth, are imitations of pond life, borrowing their image and attitudes from the old movies they've seen. They talk like Cagney and dress like the Mean Streets crew. However, there's something more going on with Gordon-Levitt, who is wearing more slap than a Reporting Scotland newsreader. All is explained, sort of, when Joe's next victim is whooshed back from the future. Say hello to Joe's older self, played by Bruce Willis. Should Joe kill his future self, or let the old guy do what he has come to do? If young Joe doesn't kill old Joe, the Mob will kill them both. Oh what a tangled web is woven by writer-directors in search of a story with spark and originality. It is at this point that a certain panic sets in, and not just with young Joe. If a director loses the audience early on in a science-fiction movie it can be disastrous. See Matrix sequels for further, grisly details. Johnson gets round any problems in two ways. First, his characters are almost as confused about time travel as the cinema audience. Got a daft question? Rely on them to ask it first. Second, Johnson, as good as the title of his film, loops back continually on the story, repeating the important points, till eventually they sink in. By the time Emily Blunt, the very British star of The Devil Wears Prada and The Young Victoria, rocks up as a farmer, complete with pukka midwestern accent, all makes sense. Or as much sense as it needs to, anyway.By way of a distraction from the many questions arising, Johnson lays on the style a mile high. An indie director by instinct, he made his name with this tactic in Brick, a high-school noir, and took the notion too far in the irritatingly quirky The Brothers Bloom. Here, though, he gets the mix of style, story, and ideas just right. Though it is set in the future, the bad guys in Looper like to dress, talk, and shoot like any cowboy in westerns of old. The basic plot, meanwhile – the forces of good preparing for the arrival of those intent on doing bad – is pure High Noon in design. It worked then, and it works now. If the whole Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a younger Bruce Willis trick doesn't entirely convince (they simply look nothing like each other), the two actors work together a treat. Gordon-Levitt, after Inception, The Dark Knight Rises and the recent Premium Rush, is becoming the action man for the iPad generation – he's sleek, smart, preppy, and can be taken anywhere. Here, as in 50/50, he shows he can do comedy as well, with Johnson injecting flashes of humour into proceedings when things are in danger of becoming too serious. While Gordon-Levitt delivers the cool, the always terrific Blunt supplies the picture with its gutsy, beating heart. Good as Gordon-Levitt and Blunt are, for those of a certain age there's a lot of satisfaction to be had in seeing Willis back to his old crinkly-eyed, wearied best. After Moonrise Kingdom and now Looper, the Die Hard star is on a roll. Kudos most of all though to Johnson, who aims high, mostly gets there, and makes it his mission to keep the surprises coming and the audience intrigued and entertained. If HG Wells dropped in from the past to see Looper, he would find his ideas in nicely loopy form. Just brace yourself for the price of the popcorn, Herbert.

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Time-travel caper with brains is brilliant fun

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