Flickering Myth

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TIFF Movie Review – Looper (2012)

by

Looper, 2012.

Directed by Rian Johnson.

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, Piper Perabo, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt and Tracie Thoms.



SYNOPSIS:

A mob hitman runs afoul with his employer when he has to assassinate an older version of himself.

When the killing of targets in the future gets impossible, mobsters send their victims to be assassinated in the past. The end result is a Murder Inc. organization which operates with clockwork precision. As long as everything goes according to plan the hired guns known as ‘loopers’ live long and prosperous lives; however, mess up an assignment and you will become a liquidated asset.

At the centre of the story is a leather jacket and tie wearing looper named Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who is so bored by the murderous routine that his life has become a drug-induced haze; he has become so entrenched in his life style that when a choice must be made between losing half of secretive monetary fund or saving the life of his best friend (Paul Dano), personal finance rules the day. When Joe could have lucratively retired by assassinating the older version of him (Bruce Willis) matters go from bad to worse when the job is botched; he now must run from his employers and literally hunt down himself.

What follows is a mixture of various cinematic influences. The diner sequence between the young and older Joe echoes Robert De Niro and Al Pacino conversing with each other in Heat (1995), Joseph Gordon-Levitt waiting for the inevitable arrival of Bruce Willis in a farmhouse resembles John Wayne in Rio Bravo (1959), and the emotionally unstable child with the special powers harkens to Damien in The Omen (1976). In regards to the time travel and telekinetic aspects they are treated with an irreverence which adds a refreshing spin to the science fiction genre.

A potent scene where the images are allowed to tell the story occurs when Joseph Gordon-Levitt touches a displaced silver bar in his secretive stash only to discover a droplet of blood on his fingertip; the symbolism is hard not ignore as his life savings have become blood money. And for those who are wondering, yes Bruce Willis does get an opportunity to go all Die Hard by taking out a series of henchmen with the help of a submachine gun. My only real problem is that one cannot help but feel that filmmaker Rian Johnson was crammed with so many ideas that some paring down would have helped a great deal with the pacing. Looper is probably too quirky to become a blockbuster hit; however, it is also a big reason why the movie is fun to watch.

Flickering Myth Rating: Film ★ ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★ ★ ★

Trevor Hogg

Originally published September 7, 2012. Updated April 14, 2018.

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