‘Looper’: Not past perfect

Coming at the end of a summer that delivered a deluge of dystopic films about the future, the new sci-fi flick Looper didn’t quite deliver the smart vision we thought (hoped) it would. Set in the year 2044, the film centers on Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a hit man of sorts who works for mafia boss Abe (Jeff Daniels) who pays him to take people out after they’re sent back from the future.

Joe’s job is simple enough. He goes to a field at an appointed time and fires away as soon as his handcuffed, hooded mark materializes, killing the guy and then quickly disposing of his body. The job is so routine, in fact, that Joe and his hit man cohorts distract themselves with drugs, nice rides and working girls. However, trouble starts when Joe’s friend Seth (Paul Dano) tells him that he was supposed to kill the older version of himself to “close his loop” (and retire with a big payday) but couldn’t bring himself do it. Although Joe lets Seth hide out at his house, he gives him up when Abe threatens to take back the silver Joe has been siphoning from the operation for a rainy day.

Subsequently, Joe encounters a future target that turns out to his own older self (Bruce Willis) and, well, he who hesitates is lost and the older Joe escapes.  The two meet up at a diner and Joe’s older self tells him he’s come back to kill the child that will grow up to be the “rainmaker,” the man responsible for closing all these loops and killing his wife. He sets out to find the child, but young Joe finds the kid and his mother (Emily Blunt) first, setting up a showdown between the two Joes.

Director Rian Johnson (Brick, The Brothers Bloom) and crew went through a great deal of trouble to ensure that leading actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt would bear a physical resemblance to his co-star Bruce Willis and have some of his mannerisms. To that extent, the film is a success. While that detail is important for the plot here, it’s not a good enough gimmick to distinguish the movie in the genre.

Don’t get us wrong. It’s an intriguing concept and all the actors did a great job here. But with some plot holes, a scene that plays like an episode of Twilight Zone, an underdeveloped character in the older Joe and some effects that are almost even a little too low-key, it wasn’t the as incredible as we hoped it might be.