Rating of
3/4
Timeless Thriller
MovieMike - wrote on 12/22/11
What would you do if you only had eight minutes left to live? ‘Source Code’ is an action thriller with a strong sci-fi element and a very interesting premise. The aforementioned eight minutes play out over and over again for Jake Gyllenhaal’s Captain Coulter Stevens, as he tries to track down the bomber of a Chicago commuter train. If you can get past the inevitable connection to the plot device used in ‘Ground Hog Day’ and ‘Fifty First Dates’, you have a smart, well-scripted puzzler that will keep your attention right up to the final frame.
‘Source Code’ starts by thrusting the audience into Gyllenahaal’s (‘Love And Other Drugs’, ‘Jar Head’) perspective and, just like his character here, we have to learn the circumstances around his bizarre mission just as he does, piece by piece. Gyllenhaal is excellent at mixing intensity and confusion into a character portrayal that draws you in right from the start. Michelle Monaghan (‘Due Date’, ‘Eagle Eye’) appears as Christina Warren who is Gyllenhaal’s travel-mate on the train. Her role here is purposely ambiguous for the early part of the story and her delivery is spot on for this character.
Other cast members include Vera Farmiga (‘Down To The Bone’, ‘The Departed’) as Gyllenhaal’s handler in this mission; and Jeffrey Wright (‘Casino Royale’, ‘Quantum Of Solace’) as Dr. Rutledge, the person responsible for the project dubbed Source Code. Both turn in good performances here, but Farmiga has the tougher job of having to be both detached and empathetic to Gyllenhaal’s plight in all of this.
Relative new-comer, Duncan Jones (‘Moon’) occupies the Director’s chair on this film and does a decent job of filming a complex story, mixing in visual imagery and special effects to put the audience into Gyllenhaal’s own experiences as the story unfolds. Writer, Ben Ripley, also provides a well laid out script that, while fairly complicated, at least doesn’t leave the audience numbed by all the technical aspects of the basic premise.
Having said all that, ‘Source Code’ is not without a few flaws. I had issues with the underlying concept behind reliving memories, creating alternate scenarios from them, and how this relates to possibly changing future events. Not to worry, the film explains all this away with vague references to quantum physics and alternate realities. Also there are a number of moral and ethical issues with the ‘Source Code’ project that are glossed over or unexplored. Despite these quibbles, the 93-minute film moves right along and was definitely entertaining. Strip away all the technical mumbo-jumbo, and you still have an intriguing mystery – minus the amnesia victim or the ground hog.
