Hello hello! It's that time of year again, when reviews from the SXSW film will start pouring in. I hope to cover as many films as possible this week, so I'll be keeping my reviews short and sweet. Here's my take on the festival's opening night film, SOURCE CODE.
I'm a huge fan of director Duncan Jones' lo-fi, science fiction masterpiece, MOON, so my expectations for this latest effort were admittedly high. I just SO loved the DIY feel of that film and the way Jones used a sci fi backdrop to showcase a serious character study. While SOURCE CODE is definitely a bold step into big budget action territory, Jones still manages to maintain similar themes of isolation, mystery, and self-discovery with terrific results.
The film centers around a soldier (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) whose mission is to thwart a terrorist attack on a Chicago commuter train. Unlike other action adventure flicks that take place on a moving train, screenwriter Ben Ripley has brilliantly crafted a fresh, mind bending story where experimental technology allows our hero to relive the same 8 minute interval on the train until he solves the crime. As the story unfolds non linearly, it soon enough becomes apparent that unfortunately this new, state of the art science has a very dark side.
As with all films that tinker with the time/space continuum, SOURCE CODE definitely demands a suspension of disbelief. In the Q and A following the film Ripley admits that earlier drafts were laden with more scientific explanation, but he felt ultimately that less is more and much of the technical stuff was eliminated. As a result, there are going to be a lot of geeks out there who will inevitably find holes in the overall theory that are big enough to jump through. Despite a few hiccups in doctrine, though, SOURCE CODE is an incredible ride. Duncan Jones shows off his action adventure chops while still maintaining the multi layered character work that I loved so much in MOON. As always, Jake Gyllenhaal deftly holds court as the leading man, however, since little is known about his character other than a brief bit about his military experience and a half-hearted plot point about his dad, I found it hard to sympathize with him at times. Michelle Monaghan (as his train riding companion) sparkles with her usual effervescent charm. Actually, the fact that Monaghan's character is completely clueless in regard to her impending doom makes for quite a refreshing departure from the overall seriousness of the film. While Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan deliver solid performances in the middle of all the hoopla, I was most impressed with Vera Farmiga's portrayal of the commanding officer in charge of our soldier's mission. Though she is almost always confined to a swivel chair and much of her screen time is limited to a monitor view from Gyllenhaal's perspective, Farmiga crafts her performance in such a way that she somehow seems completely removed from these constraints.
Overall, SOURCE CODE is a badass mind bender that I had a ton of fun with. There will likely be many of you who won't be able to get past the somewhat flawed time travel dogma, but I totally encourage you to look past such details and enjoy a marvelously complex and action-packed adventure.
I'll be checking in again with more reviews from the SXSW film festival.
Until then,
Annette Kellerman
