Source Code
3 stars (out of 4)
Rated: PG
How can this far-fetched thriller amount to such a satisfying film? It defies science.
Source Code is a sci-fi thriller that simply shouldn’t work as well as it does.
An almost risible collision of the bogus science and cranial confusion from Groundhog Day, Inception and Avatar, it also shares the themes of isolation and alienation found in Moon, director Duncan Jones’ heralded debut.
The jumble of influences includes Woody Allen’s maddening Zelig, in that you may find yourself, as I did, wishing for the movie to settle down and actually start.
Source Code continually loops back to its opening scene, where Jake Gyllenhaal is chatting up Michelle Monaghan on a Chicago commuter train, in a scene meant to remind us of Strangers on a Train.
It’s more schlock than Hitchcock, but here’s where good casting and a little patience pay off.
Gyllenhaal is U.S. army Capt. Colter Stevens, a decorated helicopter pilot who awakens to find himself part of a science experiment. His mind is inside the body of an unknown man, the guy riding the commuter train.
He’s informed by a controlling voice (Vera Farmiga) that he’s part of a top-secret program called “Source Code,” allowing him to twist time, space and DNA to assume another man’s identity for the last eight minutes of that person’s life.
And these aren’t just any eight minutes.
That’s how long Stevens has to figure out who planted a bomb on the train, Part 1 of a larger tragedy. The bomber also intends to kill millions of Chicagoans with a second more deadly strike.
Stevens has to unmask and stop him.
If at first our body-swapping hero doesn’t succeed, he’s obliged to try, try again, and that includes reliving the blast that results from failed espionage attempts.
Stevens isn’t given much to go on about his fellow travellers.
Could the bomber be Monaghan’s Christina, the flirty brunette who seems to know him, or at least wants to get to know him better?
Perhaps the baddie is the sweaty businessman with the briefcase (Cas Anvar), who probably gets stopped a lot at airport checkpoints.
Or maybe it’s the trying-too-hard comedian (Russell Peters), who isn’t all that funny?
Or maybe it’s none of the above. Check, rinse, repeat.
The science of Source Code is sketchy, to say the least. Jones evidently realizes this, because he allows Jeffrey Wright, as the Source Code project head, to ham it up with a wacky professor turn straight out of Back to the Future.
He’s actually more throwback than futurist, referring to “the War on Terror” as if George W. Bush is still in power.
Neither Jones nor screenwriter Ben Ripley (Species III) sweat the details of the data, and in this case it’s a good thing.
Why does a “source code” mind trip last eight minutes? Who cares?
Better that Jones should concentrate on the performances, and he gets three fine ones from Gyllenhaal, Monaghan and Farmiga, who invest a good deal of emotion into a farcical situation.
If all else fails, it’s a decent thriller at a brisk 93 minutes, including all the repeats.
Peter Howell is a syndicated movie critic for The Toronto Star.