Movie Review : Source Code

[amazon_link id=”B004XQO90E” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Director : Duncan Jones

This film is by Duncan Jones, director of Moon. “Source Code” has the same feel, although the story is quite different. SC is a time-warp film mixed in together with a potential terrorist plot. Jake Gyllenhal plays Colter Stevens, a soldier deployed in Afghanistan, who finds himself suddenly transplanted onto a moving train in Chicago. As he is trying to orient himself to his new surroundings the train explodes. Stevens amazingly survives and finds himself strapped into a seat in what looks to be a space shuttle. Right across from him is a TV monitor with a woman’s face on it. The woman is telling the groggy Stevens that the cycle will repeat until he can do something about it. . . And Stevens finds himself back in the train again. It explodes. Again and again and . . .

This is a “mind-bending” film, and words like parallel reality, alternate universe, quantum physics are bandied about. We never quite know how all this technology works; suffice it to say that it does and soldier Colter Stevens has been volunteered to “try” it out to potentially save the citizens of Chicago from a deadly attack. He has 8 minutes to save the world.

I wanted to see SC because the premise looked interesting. I adored “Groundhog Day” and Moon, and while SC seems to resemble both, it is quite different. Like Moon, SC is presumably set in a world where technology is allowing us to accomplish unheard of things. Like Moon, SC also has a lead protagonist entrenched in events which seem almost virtual and unreal, and who must extricate himself without any help from the outside world. And like Groundhog Day, SC has that sense of déjà vu.

SC is interesting and keeps you engrossed. The film opens well, and I was completely absorbed trying to figure out the mechanics of it all. As it progresses and we are clearer on the time-warping and Source Code technology, the film morphs into an action thriller with the hero on a time-critical mission. There’s never a dull moment.

However SC never gets quite as good as I expected it to be. It has a storyline and teaser which heighten expectation. Thus, I expected a rather bombastic film which would bring me to the edge of my seat. Jones, however, under-does the film. With his subdued treatment, the film never quite becomes as big as one would expect, and the bare space-pod-ish sets, few main characters, and minimal sound effects give it a low-budget, indie feel. This indie feel worked for Moon (which I saw on DVD), but do not bode well for Source Code which is a theater release, and from which I expected a slicker, more polished look.

Jones has a bare-bones style of directing. Moon lacked melodrama, as does SC. And while I have been guilty of pooh-poohing melodrama, I’ve got to say that without it one does not quite feel the punch to the gut as effectively as one should. Our hero Stevens is in the thick of it, but one doesn’t quite feel it – there’s not much emotional rooting-for-the-knight-in-shining-armor (or space pod) going on here. I know that Colter Stevens is a good guy, but he is a little daft (disoriented ?) and does indulge in racial profiling. There were also minor irritants in the film like the clichéd bad guy and sets which looked like they’d been built during the Cold War Era. Source Code is supposedly futuristic technology, so why doesn’t it look it ?

All that said, this is s decent film; it just isn’t your rah-rah Friday night entertainer.

P.S. : Comedian Russell Peters has a small role in the film as one of the passengers on the Chicago bound train.