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How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 10 August 2011
This a movie review of SOURCE CODE. |
“Source Code is not time travel. Rather, Source Code is time re-assignment. It gives us access to a parallel reality,” Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright)
The relationship between science and ethics has been a theme this year. We have Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Project Nim, and it kicked off with Source Code. This was one of the ideas looked at in director Duncan Jones’ previous, Moon. That was a stunning debut. Expectations were thus high, sky high in fact. He had a larger budget, what could he do with it? Unfortunately his sophomore effort is a bit of a damp squib. It’s not poor, don’t get me wrong; just unsatisfying on two important levels – story and thrills. The main thing that makes Source Code watchable is the (I was going to use quadrafecta, but it doesn’t seem to be a word) four leads, bringing their charisma and charm: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright.
The relationship between science and ethics has been a theme this year. We have Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Project Nim, and it kicked off with Source Code. This was one of the ideas looked at in director Duncan Jones’ previous, Moon. That was a stunning debut. Expectations were thus high, sky high in fact. He had a larger budget, what could he do with it? Unfortunately his sophomore effort is a bit of a damp squib. It’s not poor, don’t get me wrong; just unsatisfying on two important levels – story and thrills. The main thing that makes Source Code watchable is the (I was going to use quadrafecta, but it doesn’t seem to be a word) four leads, bringing their charisma and charm: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright.
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We are in Groundhog Day territory here. Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) is a soldier who is assigned to keep reliving an eight minute chunk of time to discern who blew up a train heading to Chicago. This terrorist act was merely a signal for something far worse to come from the perpetrator. This is where the sci-fi explanation is a bit of a bodge. It’s not a simulator he’s in, like the, ahem, holodeck in Star Trek, where living beings can interact with the digital as if they are real. It seems to be some sort of time wake which the “Source Code” taps into; and Stevens is then able to alter what happens through taking over the life of another. He doesn’t change anything in the real world, according to its creator, Dr. Rutledge (Wright). The explanation the characters give feels a bit fudged to me. It might not bother some, but I got pulled out of the experience. Compare and contrast eXistenZ or The Matrix. This is more like Denzel Washington’s Deja Vu. Here, we also have a love story thrown into the mix, and a cheesy denouement.
What’s the most galling after the beguiling Moon, is how banal the script is. The dialogue is clunky, with lines like:
“Look at me. Everything's going to be okay”, Christina; or
“It's the same train, but it's different”, Colter; and
“This is not time travel. This is time re-assignment”, Dr. Rutledge.
There is a sinister side to this film, which the filmmakers chose to play down. Shame.
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