Another weekend, another movie about chaos theory. And this time it’s even called “Chaos Theory.” Romantic comedy though it may be, the movie, starring Ryan Reynolds, takes as its inspiration the idea that fate is determined by small ripples in the fabric of time and space. Hey: If Ashton Kutcher can get his head around it, why not the rest of us?
It’s a Wonderful Life — Perhaps it was the great Frank Capra who introduced chaos theory to the American mainstream, with this tale (1946) of the implacably goodhearted George Bailey (James Stewart), who, through an angelic intervention, glimpses a grim alternate reality in which he was never born.
Back to the Future — In this beloved 1985 hit, the jittery, shock-coifed Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) neatly explained the chain reaction that would literally disintegrate Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) — and delay the invention of rock ’n’ roll! — if two teenagers failed to smooch at a high-school dance.
Sliding Doors — Never had the timing of a morning commute seemed more significant than in this 1998 romantic comedy, in which Gwyneth Paltrow’s life proceeds along two separate tracks, as it were, of the London subway.
A Sound of Thunder — In the future, man will have invented an expensive new plaything for the rich, wherein adventurous types will pay exorbitant sums to go sightseeing in prehistoric times — and perhaps alter the space-time continuum in disastrous ways while they’re at it. In the present, this 2005 movie’s star, Edward Burns, is still just a handsome flash in the pan.
The Butterfly Effect — In which our Mr. Kutcher plays a young man who possesses a supernatural mental ability to return to his childhood and rejigger events. Not in a single one of these time-twisting scenarios is the “Punk’d” star taken seriously as a dramatic actor.
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