Director Duncan Jones came out of the gate swinging with his first feature film, Moon. I am pleased to report there’s no sophomore slump with his second effort, Source Code. The always superb Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Afghan war veteran Colter Stevens…and Chicago teacher Sean Fentress. He wakes up on a Chicago commuter train sitting across the lovely Christina (Michelle Monaghan). Confused and disoriented, he’s bewildered to see the reflection in the train’s window is not him. Suddenly the train explodes, killing everyone. Colton awakens again in a military capsule, being quizzed repeatedly by Air Force officer Goodwin (Vera Farmiga). He’s shocked to find out that he’s on a top secret mission to prevent catastrophic terrorist attacks on Chicago. The government has the ability to send him back in time for eight minutes in another body - as long as that individual matches his brain chemistry. Colton’s twisted travels through the ‘source code’ reveals a great many surprises about himself, love, and the true nature of reality.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
Source Code deliciously bites off more than it can chew. It is a science fiction thriller foremost, but runs a wide gamut of human emotion. Gyllenhaal’s characters of Stevens and Fentress share the goal of the mission, and the aftermath. While Colter struggles to understand his role in the Source Code, Fentress is at a key moment in his life as well. Christina, who has been a friend, is waiting for him to take their relationship to the next level. It is a beautiful romance, one that makes Stevens realize that her safety, and the future life she has with Fentress must be also be secured. Jake Gyllenhaal absolutely embodies this struggle. He’s afraid, resolute, happy, hopeful in a wild ride of a storyline. A lessor actor would not have been as convincing. His tremendous versatility and range make him the ideal protaganist for this complex story.
The science behind the Source Code technology is a drawback. Ben Ripley’s excellent script is great on timing and execution, but should have taken a page from Avatar and not even bothered to get into how the time travel works. Jeffrey Wright (Dr. Rutledge), the project leader, has a monologue where he attempts to explain everything. It made no sense at all, is very brief, and to the inquisitive filmgoer will be a bump in a rather smoothly flowing story. It made me wonder what they hell he was talking about and took me out of the film entirely.
Duncan Jones understood the pace of the story and cuts the film into an ultra-lean ninety minutes. It’s all killer no filler. There’s literally something going on in every second of this movie. I was furious to have hit the bathroom and missed two minutes. I highly recommend bathroom trips before the start, because you’ll miss a lot if you’re gone for any amount of time.
I will say that the villain is easily spotted. Then you have to wait for Steven’s to figure out something that does seem rather obvious. Ripley’s script does this on purpose. The bad guy is not the end of the story, just another story element in a multi-faceted plot. He doesn’t want to place all emphasis on this one person, because there’s so much else happening that is important. This approach is why I find Source Code so enjoyable. Here you have a writer and director unwilling to spoon food simplicity. They are embracing a swath of subject matter and taking us along for a helluva ride. Not to be missed.
