'Source Code' A Review

Source Code is a Sci-Fi thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan, the film opens with Gyllenhaal waking up to discover he's on a train he has no memory of boarding. 8 minutes later the train explodes. Gyllenhaal comes to again, this time in some sort of cockpit talking to a government official. As the story unfolds we find out that the government has created a technology called 'source code' that takes a dead persons brain and can recreate the last 8 minutes they lived over and over again. The train is bombed and that's in the past but Gyllenhaal can go back and relive the last 8 minutes of one of the passengers lives in order to discover who the bomber was. After the train bombing the terrorist threatens to set off a dirty bomb in downtown Chicago. Gyllenhaal's mission is to prevent this from happening. This plot device propels the movie forward and injects an urgency to the story. It's reminiscent of 'Groundhogs Day' and 'Deja Vu.'

Monaghan is a friend to the person Gyllenhaal inhabits and is the first person he sees as he begins the 8 minutes. The chemistry between them develops slowly but surely. Monaghan does a great turn recreating the same 8 minutes with slight variations, as well as reacting honestly to situations in which Gyllenhaal acts untoward. She plays an unspoken history between the characters which Gyllenhaal has no knowledge of. Gyllenhaal as well does a great job of carrying the movie, never over the top, at times frustrated, at times desperate, but always honest and caring. He becomes increasingly frustrated as the government officials repeatedly send him back with no information as to his current situation, he's never let out of the cockpit. Jeffery Wright and Vera Farmiga do good turns as the morally ambiguous government people. And we eventually see some emotional cracks in Farmiga's steely facade. Wright comes across like a modern day mad scientist, with accompanying tan crutch which I'm sure he requested from wardrobe.

The meat of the film is kind of hidden. It appears as if it's simply solving the crime, finding the bomber, but the film is really an investigation into what 'source code' actually is. After reliving the same moment over and over Gyllenhaal becomes convinced, partly because of his growing affection for Monaghan, that he can change the past. After the bomber is found he requests to be sent back again to save the train riders even though he's told it'll make no difference.

(spoilers)

He goes back a final time and is successful. There's a theory that there are many worlds parallel to our own. Every choice we make spawns a different alternate world where one choice was made. Gyllenhaal discovers this is what source code is. A device that creates access to parallel worlds where the past can be changed. What if this happened. What if this choice was made. This idea is at the center of 'Source Code', what makes it great. There is a Gyllenhaal character that has succeeded his mission and there is a Gyllenhaal character that hasn't even started it.

This is the first good science fiction movie of the year. An interesting premise with fascinating implications, bolstered by honest acting with chemistry. It also has some great comic relief.

See it.