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Released By: Summit Entertainment
Released On: 07/26/2011
Director: Duncan Jones
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga
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The Film
A man awakes suddenly from a nap to find himself on a train heading for Chicago. An attractive woman he doesn't recognize sits across from him, talking to him in a way that is very familiar. Another woman spills coffee on his shoe as she passes him. A conductor asks him for his ticket, which the attractive woman removes from his shirt pocket. Before Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) has a chance to figure out exactly what's going on, an explosion rips through the train, obliterating everyone on board.
The End.
All hail the eight minute film, pioneer medium of the future.
Actually, what happens next is that Stevens regains consciousness in what looks like the damaged cockpit of a military helicopter. His memory is no better here than it was on the train, and only after being prompted by the on-screen appearance of Captain Goodwin does he start to remember who he actually is; a helicopter pilot whose last memory was flying missions in Afghanistan. Goodwin and her on-screen cohort Dr. Rutledge inform Colter that he was injured in combat, and that he has since become an integral part of the Source Code program, a military experiment that harvests a brain's last thoughts and uses them to recreate an alternate reality from the past. In this case, they've utilized the final memories of Sean Fentress, a commuter who was onboard a Chicago-bound train when it was destroyed by a terrorist attack. With the threat of another attack imminent, Stevens has been inserted into the Source Code as Sean Fentress to locate the bomb and identify the perpetrators so that Goodwin and Rutledge can help to prevent an encore performance from the terrorists.
The biggest obstacle standing in the way of his success is that since Fentress' memory only consists of the eight minutes before his death, Stevens will only have eight minutes each time he's inserted in the Source Code to track down the bomber. Add to that the fact that even though he's revisiting the past in this strange reality each time he goes in, real-world time is still moving forward, getting closer to the secondary attack. And, of course, he still has no idea who he is supposed to be or who the woman across from him is.
As you can probably imagine, there's a fair bit of repetition that occurs in the film, and that's not a bad thing altogether. Because the viewer has no idea who the culprit is, they are essentially kept as in the dark as Stevens is, which is a pretty nifty technique on the part of the writers; as different clues are revealed to the protagonist, the audience is included. However, as you can probably imagine, there's a fair bit of repetition that occurs in the film, and that can get a little tiring. If you start watching for hints to draw your own conclusions, you might come up with the solution wayyyyy before Colter does. To keep it interesting, the idea is introduced that the “alternate reality†might not be so alternate after all, and despite being told that it's just a simulation, Stevens becomes obsessed with the idea that he can save all of the passengers on the train, especially the girl who he is falling in love with, eight minutes at a time. And while some of this concept becomes repetitive in and of itself and gets a little….cute and annoying, the idea behind the story is thought-provoking enough, with a pretty strong delivery.
A lot of the credit for the effectiveness of the film should go to Writer Ben Ripley, who has kicked out a pretty unique script, and to Director Duncan Jones who has brought it to the screen in a competent manner. Although, as mentioned, the repetition can be a little eye-roll inducing at times, a strong cast helps as well, with Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan coming off as completely believable in a fairly unbelievable setting. Displaying a pretty wide range of emotion, Gyllenhaal's Stevens character goes from surprisingly intense to creepily hilarious, and Monaghan…well, she's just nice. She's a nice girl. She smiles, you smile. Vera Farmiga is also effective as Goodwin, and her emotional scenes towards the end of the film make up for the lack of screen time. The weak link in the chain is definitely Rutledge, played by Jeffrey Wright. His time on screen is spent by playing his character in such a ridiculous manner, I wouldn't have been surprised to suddenly realize that he was being played by one of the Kids In The Hall in makeup. How anyone watched his performance and thought that it was strong enough to put in the film is beyond me. Thankfully, his screen time is also limited.
It's not the best movie that I've seen recently, but Source Code stacks up a pretty inventive script with some decent direction and solid acting; and that's a good enough reason to give it a watch.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Summit Entertainment bring Source Code to Blu-Ray with a snappy looking 1.78:1 transfer that takes advantage of the resolution to offer a crisp, detailed picture with good contrast and solid black levels. Colours are vibrant and the grain doesn't appear to have been stomped on, though it is non-existent during the low-light DV Cam scenes. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track frequently kicks in the surrounds and the subwoofer, while remaining clear and coherent throughout.
Two extras are contained on the disc. The first is a Commentary with Director Duncan Jones, Writer Ben Ripley, and Jake Gyllenhaal. They cover a lot of information with very few gaps in the conversation, discussing everything from the creation of the story, the character development and inspiration, to technical details involving camera equipment. It's a worthwhile listen, with all three participants sounding fairly enthusiastic.
The second supplement is Access: Source Code. This gives the viewer the option to see picture-in-picture interviews and trivial facts while the movie is playing. The only problem is that the interface, that comes up like some kind of high-tech spaceship-looking gizmo on the left side of the screen, is idiotic and not user-friendly in the least and will hopefully not make you launch your remote through the screen. Put the interviews in the Special Features menu and be done with it. There may be people out there who like trivia popping up on the screen or sudden commentary interjections or on-screen interviews while the film is playing, but I don't know them. Too much work, no payoff.
The Final Word:
I don't have a thesaurus handy, or I might have some other words to use in place of unique…but this unique film is worth seeing, and the Summit Blu-Ray is a good way to go about seeing it.
