Review of Source Code (2011) by L D — 01 Mar 2016

When every second counts, retrace your steps and you'll find your answer.

Decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) awakens leaning against a Chicago commuter train window with a jolt. Adding to his disorientation is the polite stranger sitting opposite, the effervescent young lady Christina (Michelle Monaghan), an apparent work colleague who seems to know him well but calls his by the wrong name.

Unable to grasp the situation, Colter heads to the washroom and looks in the mirror where he receives another shock, a reflection of one whom is not himself. This bizarre incident continues for eight minutes until a supply train heading in the opposite direction explodes.

Awaking once again but this time in a metal capsule strapped in a flight harness chair, Colter is informed by Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), a uniformed intelligence officer on a miniature fuzzy black and white television in a lab; that he is participating in a scientific military operation known as Source Code.

As it is reluctantly explained, the Source Code is a secret government experiment in which enables someone (Colter) to cross into another man's mind during the final 8 minutes of his life by marrying electro magnitics with high-concept time reassignment.

Colter's purposeful mission is to return to the commuter train and re-live the incident repeatedly whilst followings Goodwin's specific orders in an attempt to find out what detonates the bomb, its location and who is responsible.

With a much larger threat targeted to kill millions looming over the city, Colter is in a race against the clock and excels as his mission gathering vital intel. However with each reinsertion Colter becomes more obsessed with the reasoning as to why he has been chosen and what has happened to his own life. Can he discover who is the bomber? Can he prevent the city's devastating and impending doom? But most importantly can save Christina?

A beguiling science fiction thriller, The Source Code with its breadth of scenario thriller and parallel realities echoed from films like Next (Nicolas Cage), Déjà vu (Densel Washington) and The Butterfly Effect (Ashton Kutcher) engages the audience in a frustrating game of not only time travel but cause and effect.

Like the aforementioned, Source Code dabbles with the idea that if you can incite brain travel and repeat a certain moment in time can you also alter the past to change the future?

Harbouring on the little repetitions; a ticket collectors stamp, a coffee spilling woman and Christina's on cue ringing mobile, adds to a recall of events causing viewers to wonder, if I could rewind my mind again and again - how would I make my time count?

After meeting mix reviews for his 2009 directorial debut, Moon (Sam Rockwell) Duncan Jones (Son of the existential time travel master Ziggy Stardust aka David Bowie) injects more depth to this impending doom story.

The pleasant chemistry is evident between the grappling-to-cope Gyllenhaal and the acceptingly bubbly Monaghan which strikes a healthy balance with Farmiga's steeliness but compassionate mentor character. The only misstep came from a hammy Geoffrey Wright who plays the brilliantly minded but morally devoid Dr Rutledge, Commander of the Source Code project.

The verdict: A wonderfully crafted escapist action thriller, The Source Code although designed in the same vein as the dreadfully tedious Groundhog Day, offers so much more. A slight of hand followed by the questioning of fate, this movie is truly engaging. My only advice, don't fret over the minor details.

Published: The Queanbeyan Age.

Date of Publication: 13/05/2011.