Source Code
2011
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright
Written by: Ben Ripley
Directed by: Duncan Jones
2009's Moon was in my top ten for that year. It was a brilliant little movie about a man who was sent to the moon, by himself, to oversee the mining operation. It was engaging and thoughtful and when I saw that Duncan Jones was attached to direct Source Code, I was intrigued. I had read the script on one of those script review sites, thought it was great and, although, I'm never excited about seeing Jake Gyllenhaal in a movie, this was one to mark the calendar for. And I wasn't wrong.
Source Code is a story about a former Afghanistan helicopter pilot who wakes up on a commuter train bound for downtown Chicago. His last images where on a mission in Afghanistan and suddenly he's sitting across from a beautiful woman, a friend from their daily meetings on the train. He is not who she thinks he is and it freaks him out. Then the train blows up. We find that the former pilot is in the Source Code, a program created by a physicist played by Jeffrey Wright where someone can go back and insert themselves into the echos of the past. In this case, right before a train is supposed to explode in order to find out who is blowing up the train. Jake finds himself going back and re-living the 8 minutes over and over until he can put together the clues he needs to find out who the guilty party is. This film is basically the action equivalent of the classic Groundhog Day. And it is pretty successful at fulfilling its premise.
As I already stated, I loved Duncan Jones' previous film Moon and while Source Code isn't as good, it still is pretty strong and solidly directed. When a film's gimmick is that it repeats itself over and over, it can be a challenge to keep that fresh. See the crappy Vantage Point for how not do tell that story. Duncan Jones does a great job at keeping us tied into the story. Visually, it is pretty standard fare for an action movie, which I guess is a good thing because he doesn't get in the way of the story, but there was never a shot that blew me away. Although, Chicago has never looked so bright and shiny.
The supporting performances were good, especially Jeffrey Wright. He added a mad scientist intensity to his role that wasn't over the top as it could have been. Vera Farmiga is once again fine and Michelle Monaghan is solid. My only problem was with Gyllenhaal. He was serviceable but I never get the feeling that he has the gravitas of someone like a DiCaprio, a Pitt or a Clooney to be able to sell a role of this type. If you would have plugged John Cusack in this role he would have made it more interesting.
Overall, I thought Source Code was solidly entertaining. Many have spoken about the confusing ending. It was a bit different than the ending of the script but I didn't find it confusing whatsoever. I credit this to my understanding of the Quantum Multiverse, which I learned about thanks to the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Parallels. If you watch that episode, the whole ending makes sense.
Source Code is a solid A-. You should check it out today.
Les
Here is the trailer:
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