This was a weird one.
All the way through watching it, I kept thinking:
"This feels slower than I remember."
"I don't remember this scene."
"Was it always this long?"
The last time I saw The Butterfly Effect was back in 2004. A mere 22 years ago. So it's entirely possible that my memory of the film has faded almost as much as Evan's (Ashton Kutcher).
For most of the film, I was enjoying the rewatch but couldn't quite work out why it felt different.
Then I got to the ending.
And suddenly everything made sense.
The ending was different.
Back when I saw this at the cinema, I remember Evan watching the home video of when he first met Kayleigh and deliberately saying horrible things to make sure they never became friends.
It was a sad ending, but it made sense to me.
Evan got to live a relatively normal life. Lenny was okay. Kayleigh and Tommy were able to grow up away from their abusive father. Nobody got everything they wanted, but everyone got a chance at something better.
The version I watched this time was the Director's Cut.
And blimey.
This ending takes things to a whole new level.
Instead of making a sacrifice later in life, Evan travels back to the womb and sacrifices himself before he's even born, effectively saving everyone else at the expense of his own life.
Even though I'd seen the film before, the ending completely caught me off guard.
I still prefer the theatrical ending.
It feels more in keeping with Evan's journey. Throughout the film he's constantly searching for a version of reality where everyone can be happy, including himself. The theatrical ending feels like the natural conclusion to that struggle.
The Director's Cut ending is certainly darker.
Much darker.
Regardless of which ending you saw, The Butterfly Effect remains a brilliant film.
It's clever, emotional, thought-provoking and built around one of my favourite movie questions:
What if?
5/5
