: Source Code
Director: Duncan Jones
A fan of Jones’ fascinating Moon, I was curious about this science fiction thriller with a Groundhog Day plot. It opens as a confused soldier wakes up on a train. The woman across from him calls him by a different name and when he looks in a mirror, a different face is looking out at him. Then a bomb explodes and destroys the train. The man wakes up imprisoned inside a small capsule with a military woman barking commands at him. She wants him to find the bomber. He’s sent back to the train and the process starts all over. Gradually we learn that he’s part of a scientific experiment known as “Source Code” where a person can be sent back into time via a parallel reality. He learns he can’t actually save the people on the train, for they are already dead, but his info could help catch the bomber who has apparently threatened to nuke Chicago with his next bomb. With each visit to the train, the soldier gets a little more information and gets closer to the bomber, but he’s also finding out more about himself and Source Code. This is an interesting, if repetitive, premise, but I was impressed the way Duncan keeps the action taut. Interesting things are constantly happening and the film felt too short instead of too long. In that regard, Duncan resisted the temptation to complicate the mission too much — the whole bomb plot really feels like one of Hitchcock’s MacGuffin — which allows us to focus on the soldier and his relationship with the girl (who doesn’t realize who he is) and the whole nature of the scientific experiment. In other words, the film has a gimmicky aspect but that’s not the reason to see the film or what gives the film it’s value. That’s good, because the “science” side of the film is very light and many questions aren’t answered. In other films such a lack of explanation could be fatal, but here it doesn’t really matter. Perhaps it doesn’t quite have the depth I crave, but it hints at it and gives you plenty to think and talk about, and most importantly, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
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