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All Joe and his fellow loopers have to do is stand in a certain place at a certain time and the victim will show up, hooded and kneeling. One quick blast and it's over. But sometimes, future versions of the loopers themselves show up on the spot; this is known as "closing your own loop," and it means getting a handsome payout and a set period of 30 more years to live it up. Trouble is, when Joe's loop arrives in the form of Bruce Willis, he hesitates, then watches as his future self runs off. Although they're the same person, decades of life experience have put them at cross-purposes, and in a dazzlingly clever nugget of a concept, each is hunting the other. The Willis version of the character wants to stop the Rainmaker when he's just a young boy so that he may enjoy the happy life he's fought so hard for; to achieve this goal, he makes some choices that many in the audience will find unsettling. But the Gordon-Levitt version is so selfish, he simply doesn't care
-- he just wants this old man to die already. The scene in which they meet at a diner and spell out what they want over plates of steak and eggs is both thrilling and darkly funny. This is perhaps the most flawed character Gordon-Levitt has played, but there's always great honesty and humanity in everything he does. And while Willis gets to flex his action-star muscles, it's the vulnerability and world-weariness of his performance that's even more appealing. The introduction of Emily Blunt, as a single mother seeking refuge from big-city life on a farm with her strikingly gifted young son (Pierce Gagnon, with tremendous presence beyond his years), adds another emotional layer to this story. It softens and slows the film down but that's not necessarily a bad thing; it's just one more example of how "Looper" keeps changing effortlessly and taking you to unexpected places
-- past, present and future. "Looper," a TriStar Pictures and FilmDistrict release, is rated R for strong violence, language, some sexuality/nudity and drug content. Running time: 119 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four. ___ Motion Picture Association of America rating definition for R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
[Associated
Press;
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