Source Code: Movie Review

Source Code: Movie Review

Source Code
Rating: 8/10
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright
Director: Duncan Jones
From the director of last year's brilliant Moon, comes a new sci fi thriller which has heart and soul as well as intelligence and action.
Gyllenhaal stars as Captain Colter Stevens, who finds himself on a train and facing a woman Christina (Monaghan) he's convinced he's never met before.
To make matters worse, he looks in a mirror and sees the face looking back at him is not his own.
Before he's got time to make head or tail of what's going on, a bomb destroys the Chicago bound train - taking him, and all the passengers with it.
When he wakes up though, he finds himself being questioned by the military (led by Vera Farmiga) and trapped in a capsule.
They explain he's got just eight minutes on the train to find out who is responsible for bombing it and send him back in - and will keep doing so until he's successful.....
Source Code is perhaps one of the best scifi thrillers ever made - but more than that, it's a compelling film which is grounded in humanity rather than just scifi.
Duncan Jones seriously impressed with Moon and he builds even more here with this thrilling and exciting ride. It's a fiendishly intriguing premise which throws you right in at the beginning by giving you few clues and so immediately you empathise with Stevens as he tries to find out what's going on.
Gyllenhaal is mightily watchable as Stevens; as the truth unravels, you understand and really feel his puzzled viewpoint; the thing is, it's all due to Gyllenhaal and his steely determination mixed with vulnerability.
But credit must also go to Monaghan; her Christine becomes the emotional touchstone on the train and the reason Stevens keep coming back - she helps give the story the humanity it needs to keep it from simply being a thriller with a large dollop of sci fi.
The other star is the script - initially complex and layered, it rewards an intelligent audience who are willing to take the ride and embrace the mystery of what's going on on the train as well as what's going on with Stevens. It also helps the director's really invested a degree of real time into this - each section on the train lasts only 8 minutes so you begin to feel the desperation as the clock ticks toward the inevitable explosion. It's a sort of scifi Groundhog Day in many ways.

Source Code is one of the best films of 2011 - it's intelligent, ferociously good film making, and a brilliant experience which rewards with multiple viewings.