Ricochet Reviews: Source Code (A Re-Post)

Like I previously said, this is just a repost of my first review from this blog. Just in case people start reading this, it'll be easier to find this way.

Source Code

Director: Duncan Jones (Moon)

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright

On Blu-Ray + DVD: July 26, 2011

I'll get straight to the point: Source Code is one of the best science fiction films I've seen in the past five years. And I'm including last year's mindbender Inception when I say this, too. I know. That's a bold statement, especially when the trailers looked mediocre and the posters were terrible. Just hear me out.

Colter Stevens (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), a US helicopter pilot stationed in Afghanistan, awakens in Chicago on a train in the body of another man. He is eventually informed that he has been selected for a government program called the Source Code, which allows the person in question to re-live the last eight minutes of someone's life. For the film's purposes, Stevens is continuously re-living the last eight minutes of a man who was killed in a terrorist attack on a train in Chicago. His job is to find the bomb and the culprit's name so as to stop a future attack from the same person.

The "repeating day" plot has been used in many films over the years includingGroundhog Day, Deja Vu, and even 50 First Dates. What elevates Source Code above all of these is the execution by director Duncan Jones. Rather than focusing heavily on the train exploding or the love story or even the philosophical questions he brings up, he focuses on Colter Stevens. These things all happen around him, but the viewer is able to believe, understand, and sympathize with what he goes through because Jones is not afraid to just let Gyllenhaal do his thing.

Speaking of the love story, it is one of the most believable ones in any recent sci-fi flick. Similar films like Inception and The Adjustment Bureau don't really create any chemistry between the two lovers, instead relying on a suspension of belief by the viewer. While this is okay, it's also cheap. Somehow, Source Code ends up being the most believable of the three, even though we know that he's in love with a dead woman and she doesn't even remember any of it because it just resets. This may be because of the focus on Stevens, as mentioned earlier. It may just be because Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan (who plays the love interest) exhibit so much chemistry that it doesn't even look like they are acting.

If there is any downside to the film, it's Jeffrey Wright. He plays Dr. Rutledge, a pointlessly crippled man in charge of the Source Code. His entire character seemed completely out of place in the film. His only function seems to be to annoy Stevens (and the viewer). He is the only character in the film that seems inherently bad, and Source Code didn't even need a bad guy to succeed.

It's very early in the year, but I doubt you're going to find a better sci-fi film in 2011. Source Code is a smart, entertaining film that will have you leaving the theater pondering your own existence. Do yourself a favor and go check it out on the big screen.