If a butterfly flaps its wings in Hollywood, do people then find Ashton Kutcher attractive?

Fuzzy and I watched the director’s cut of The Butterfly Effect on DVD tonight. My initial reaction (other than disbelief that anyone could find the star appealing) was: interesting story, a bit predictable.

The premise should be obvious from the film’s title. Chaos theory married to time travel. Specifically, a boy has a history of blacking out whenever he experiences trauma. As he reaches adulthood, he learns how to recover the memories of those traumatic events, and further, how to revisit, and alter them. The bulk of the film shows the many different iterations of his life that are created, each based on another tiny factor, in his quest to have the perfect ending.

In truth, despite my distaste for him, Ashton Kutcher’s performance as Evan Treborn was credible – especially at his most psychotic. Amy Smart was engaging (in most iterations) as Kayleigh, and Elden Henson did a fabulous job as Lenny, playing the same character as both normal and insane. But the performance that impressed me most was that of William Lee Scott as Tommy Miller, who was equally creepy as a budding serial killer and a Christian fundamentalist.

All in all, The Butterfly Effect was enjoyable, if a little creepy. There was some violence that was deeply disturbing to me, but I’d still recommend it for a movie night. I’m not sure it would have been worth $9 to see it in a theater, though.