Butterfly Effect

Pretty Ashton Kutcher and prettier Amy Smart star in this strange sci-fi film about a man who can go back in time, but shouldn’t. Kutcher plays Evan Treborn, a boy with a disturbing past, and Smart is his best friend and sometime girlfriend, Kayleigh. They survive child-rape and some horrifying murders to grow into poorly adjusted but tremendously attractive adults. Then, Evan discovers that if he goes back in time, he can make things much, much worse. Strangely, he keeps doing this until he’s left armless and crippled. Perhaps it’s all a metaphor for U.S. foreign policy. Satisfyingly strange and tightly plotted, Butterfly Effect is marred only by Kutcher’s mediocre acting and some extremely disturbing scenes that will no doubt turn off the more sensitive viewer.