Looper - 7 stars out of 10

Looper - 7 stars out of 10

"Looper" isn't the most innovative or mind-bending time travel film that I have ever seen, but it does take a fresh approach and delivers some solid acting performances.  While most time travel films focus on the main character moving through time, "Looper" is a character-driven film that examines the conflict raised by meeting one's future self and dissects the the effects on the future self as his past and his memories are altered.  The story works but the whole telekinetic thing is a bit over the top (but necessary as it becomes the entire plot).  It is easy to see that the writers focused on character development but needed a plot to tie the characters together.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives one of the greatest performances that I have ever seen.  It isn't because his character is particularly great or that he delivers an Oscar-worthy emotional performance.  The truly amazing thing about Gordon-Levitt is his mastery of Bruce Willis' facial expressions and mannerisms.  We have all seen Willis act throughout the years and he has a very distinctive way of carrying and expressing himself.  In general, these two actors do not look alike but because of Gordon-Levitt's mastery of these facial expressions, they become the same person at two different ages on the screen.  Willis doesn't deliver his greatest action performance but Emily Blunt really turned my head with her feisty, bad-a** attitude.  This character is so far away from her other roles that it took me awhile to recognize her, and even then I couldn't be sure.  One of the cooler concepts in the film is the clouding of Old Joe's memory as his personal history is altered.  The sequence of Paul Dano's older version of himself being slowly "taken apart" is really cool but disgusting and the concept of the mob using time travel to dispose of bodies is also pretty unique.  There aren't really any twists or surprises, just raw acting and an interesting concept with a villain that ties it together and doesn't do much more than that.