FACE YOUR FUTURE. FIGHT YOUR PAST.
In 2044, Joe Simmons (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) works as a contract killer for the mob in Kansas City; one day, he’s shocked to learn that his next target is an older version of himself (Bruce Willis) from the future. The star and director of Brick (2006) reunited for another thriller, one that I found initially hard to get involved in because of its borderline too-clever jumps between different periods of time. However, Rian Johnson’s script is smart (and emotional) enough to break down resistance, aided in no small part by the three stars’ excellent performances. The film definitely finds its footing from the moment the story introduces Emily Blunt and her powerful protĂ©gĂ©.Â
2012-U.S. 119 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced by Ram Bergman, James D. Stern. Written and directed by Rian Johnson. Cast: Bruce Willis (Old Joe Simmons), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Young Joe Simmons), Emily Blunt (Sara), Paul Dano, Noah Segan, Piper Perabo… Jeff Daniels.
Trivia: Gordon-Levitt’s face has been slightly altered using prosthetic makeup in order to make him look more like Willis.
Last word: “Your job as a writer is to soak up the world and just be really present and then put that into the work and everything that is in the movie comes from your own experience and stuff that you’ve soaked up. And especially with a sci-fi film. I think what I love about science fiction and what sci-fi can be really good at is obviously you’re working with outlandish concepts that have very little to do with the real world, like time travel for instance. But what we’re gunning for is to use those outlandish concepts in order to amplify something very human and recognizable. In this case, a young man and an old man sitting across the table from each other and the young man saying, ‘I’m not gonna turn into you’, and the old man saying, ‘You’re such an idiot. You’re doing it all wrong. I see where you’re gonna end up. Take my advice’, and that’s obviously a very human, recognizable thing that sci-fi just lets us kind of attack on a grand scale.” (Johnson, Screen Rant)
