- Location: AMC Flatiron Crossing 14
- What impressed me most about Duncan Jones' directorial debut, Moon, was that he took a fairly predictable The Outer Limits-style plot and converted it into a memorably atmospheric and immensely fascinating cinematic experience. In Source Code he attempts the same trick, but with diminished results. Sure, the end result is a better-than-average bit of intelligent sci-fi, but it's not the sort of film that I'd want to watch over and over again. It was enough to watch it over and over the first time.
- Which brings me to the film's premise. Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a military operative whose top-secret experimental mission involves repeatedly reliving the last eight minutes of someone else's life. That someone else was a man named Sean Fentress who was killed earlier that day by a bomb hidden in a train on its way to Chicago. How does it work? Blah blah, parallel calculus, blah blah, quantum mechanics. The point is that Captain Stevens needs to find out who set that bomb so that any related subsequent attacks can be foiled. It's like Groundhog Day, but with the goal of saving Chicago instead of falling in love with Andie MacDowell.
- But something isn't quite right. For one, Stevens can't remember anything that's happened to him since his last tour of duty in Afghanistan. For another, the strange capsule in which he's trapped begins malfunctioning, leaking, and freezing. His remote connection to the outside world, Captain Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), tries to keep Stevens focused, but we gather that the senior project scientist, the overzealous Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), has ordered her to keep mum. In the meantime, Stevens' expeditions on the simulated train are getting nowhere fast. Sure, he's found the bomb and struck up a love interest with a passenger named Christina (Michelle Monaghan), but who's the real culprit? Is it that vaguely South Asian guy (Cas Anvar), the stand-up comedian (Russell Peters), or the Tim McVeigh-type (Michael Arden) who keeps leaving his wallet on the train?
- Admittedly, most of the fun in watching Source Code comes from trying to decipher what is really happening to Captain Stevens. Initially, I had hoped the Queen of Spades and solitaire references were pointing to The Manchurian Candidate -- boy, was I wrong! While the film's big twist is decent enough, particularly when we finally get a glimpse of Goodwin's computer screen, the final resolution leaves a few too many existential questions hanging for my taste. Without giving too much away, this just really wasn't Sean Fentress' day, in this or any other version of reality. Still, the film contains some strong performances and is a respectable enough sophomore offering from Jones. Now let's hope his next effort lives up to his first.
- In what is surely the most impressive Quantum Leap reference ever, Scott Bakula is the voice of Stevens' father. I take my hat off to you, Mr. Jones.
- Christina's cell phone plays the alarm clock song from Moon. Awesome.
- I couldn't help but chuckle when I saw Millennium Park. Maybe it was finished on time in that reality?
