"People said that they would do anything for their children. Anything. Well, I'm going to put a test on that."
Release Year: 2007
Country: Canada
Genre: Psychological thriller
Director: Mike Barker
Screenwriter: William Morrissey
Cinematography: Ashley Rowe
Music: Robert Duncan
Editing: Guy Bensley, Bill Sheppard
Actors: Pierce Brosnan, Gerard Butler, Maria Bello
Country: Canada
Genre: Psychological thriller
Director: Mike Barker
Screenwriter: William Morrissey
Cinematography: Ashley Rowe
Music: Robert Duncan
Editing: Guy Bensley, Bill Sheppard
Actors: Pierce Brosnan, Gerard Butler, Maria Bello
The scariest thing that could happen to people is to lose the precious things in their possession. Family, career, money, and all the good stuffs. And yet, we are seldom grateful for having them. We keep wanting and pushing for more, feeling that there is no way we can lose what we already have. Except that we can, and sometimes we deserve that. This point is wonderfully made in Butterfly on A Wheel, a kidnapping thriller with strong plotting, nice execution of twists, and a very satisfying performance from the former Mr. James Bond.
The conflict in the movie revolves around a happily married couple, Neil (Butler) and Abby Randall (Bello). They are living a perfect life: a nice house, a cute little daughter, and a bright future with Neil closing in on a big promotion. Then one day, they left their daughter with a baby-sitter, take a leave on a car, and a mysterious man (Brosnan) jumps on them from the backseat. The Mystery Man has a gun, and he orders Neil and Abby to follow everything he says, otherwise he will tell the "baby-sitter" (who is apparently his accomplice) to kill the daughter.
It does not take long for the movie to kick up the suspense; only fifteen very efficient minutes to establish Neil and Abby's domestic life, Neil's office, and small (but very noticeable) details that would contribute to the story later. From there, we are very effectively placed in the perspective of Neil and Abby. We have no idea about The Mystery Man's identity or motive, and besides one suggestive shot, we also do not get to see their kidnapped daughter and her situation. And as they scramble up to do everything The Mystery Man wants, cracks started to show up: perhaps they are not really living the perfect life, after all.
A lot of the scenes depends on Brosnan's performance, and boy, he really nailed this one. The plotting of the movie is built around his character, and he is also a powerful magnet that draw all the audience's attention toward him (which serves an even more important purpose than it sounds). Instead of playing a stereotypical evil villain, Brosnan embodies a man with strong authority, cold menace, and a VERY strong will to get what he wants. It turns out that, unlike a regular kidnapper, it is not money The Mystery Man is after. For a while it seems that he is a madness-driven sociopath who just want to systematically destroy Neil's and Abby's lives, and yet there is a certain method in his madness.
The titular phrase 'butterfly on a wheel' is an allusion to Pope Alexander's poem ("Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?"--usually interpreted as an unnecessarily radical action to achieve something minor) and metaphor of the situation that The Mystery Man creates. Neil and Abby are seemingly the butterflies, being crushed by the Mystery Man. Essentially, it all boils down to a question: why? And the answer comes to us in a terrific revelation, which shifted the audiences' perspective, shatters our perception, and force us to re-evaluate how we feel about the characters and how we interpret the events that happened. Finally, let's also say that the ending sequence after the revelation is one of the most satisfying I have seen from this kind of movies.
It is quite easy to make a story with a twist ('aliens did it! it is all government conspiracy! the guy is a ghost the whole time!'), but you cannot make a good twist/revelation by just forcing the most surprising thing you can think of into the end of your story. The principal rule is to play fair with the audience without being too obvious, and Butterfly did just that. It drops many clues, but also maintains layers of deception and distraction to obscure the answer--which feels obvious in retrospect. It has no complicated trick (like the backward-plot in Memento, a very good movie in its own right), just a very basic, effective, and logical set-up that clicks together by the very end and offers significantly different (and just as enjoyable) re-watch experience once you already knew everything.
This is probably my favorite kidnapping thriller, and while it is not some art masterpiece or an excellent technical achievement, I really can't help but adore its elegant narrative structure. Most of all, it has a strong emotional impact to me. It conveys the feeling of being so close to lose something precious. It makes me cherish what I have and reminds me not to take them for granted--after all, I may someday find myself as the butterfly, being crushed to pieces by the wheel.
The conflict in the movie revolves around a happily married couple, Neil (Butler) and Abby Randall (Bello). They are living a perfect life: a nice house, a cute little daughter, and a bright future with Neil closing in on a big promotion. Then one day, they left their daughter with a baby-sitter, take a leave on a car, and a mysterious man (Brosnan) jumps on them from the backseat. The Mystery Man has a gun, and he orders Neil and Abby to follow everything he says, otherwise he will tell the "baby-sitter" (who is apparently his accomplice) to kill the daughter.
It does not take long for the movie to kick up the suspense; only fifteen very efficient minutes to establish Neil and Abby's domestic life, Neil's office, and small (but very noticeable) details that would contribute to the story later. From there, we are very effectively placed in the perspective of Neil and Abby. We have no idea about The Mystery Man's identity or motive, and besides one suggestive shot, we also do not get to see their kidnapped daughter and her situation. And as they scramble up to do everything The Mystery Man wants, cracks started to show up: perhaps they are not really living the perfect life, after all.
A lot of the scenes depends on Brosnan's performance, and boy, he really nailed this one. The plotting of the movie is built around his character, and he is also a powerful magnet that draw all the audience's attention toward him (which serves an even more important purpose than it sounds). Instead of playing a stereotypical evil villain, Brosnan embodies a man with strong authority, cold menace, and a VERY strong will to get what he wants. It turns out that, unlike a regular kidnapper, it is not money The Mystery Man is after. For a while it seems that he is a madness-driven sociopath who just want to systematically destroy Neil's and Abby's lives, and yet there is a certain method in his madness.
The titular phrase 'butterfly on a wheel' is an allusion to Pope Alexander's poem ("Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?"--usually interpreted as an unnecessarily radical action to achieve something minor) and metaphor of the situation that The Mystery Man creates. Neil and Abby are seemingly the butterflies, being crushed by the Mystery Man. Essentially, it all boils down to a question: why? And the answer comes to us in a terrific revelation, which shifted the audiences' perspective, shatters our perception, and force us to re-evaluate how we feel about the characters and how we interpret the events that happened. Finally, let's also say that the ending sequence after the revelation is one of the most satisfying I have seen from this kind of movies.
It is quite easy to make a story with a twist ('aliens did it! it is all government conspiracy! the guy is a ghost the whole time!'), but you cannot make a good twist/revelation by just forcing the most surprising thing you can think of into the end of your story. The principal rule is to play fair with the audience without being too obvious, and Butterfly did just that. It drops many clues, but also maintains layers of deception and distraction to obscure the answer--which feels obvious in retrospect. It has no complicated trick (like the backward-plot in Memento, a very good movie in its own right), just a very basic, effective, and logical set-up that clicks together by the very end and offers significantly different (and just as enjoyable) re-watch experience once you already knew everything.
This is probably my favorite kidnapping thriller, and while it is not some art masterpiece or an excellent technical achievement, I really can't help but adore its elegant narrative structure. Most of all, it has a strong emotional impact to me. It conveys the feeling of being so close to lose something precious. It makes me cherish what I have and reminds me not to take them for granted--after all, I may someday find myself as the butterfly, being crushed to pieces by the wheel.
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