SOURCE CODE (2011 - 12A)

To my knowledge there have been two significant achievements made by Duncan Jones. One is getting rid of the name Zowie Bowie and the other is the incerdibly well-received and understatedly thoughtful Moon. Starring Sam Rockwell and the voice of Kevin Spacey, it was released a couple of years ago and quickly gathered momentum, being heralded as a return to good old-fashioned science-fiction film making.

In the same way that we are all waiting for Gareth Edwards' next move after Monsters, great things were expected of Jones, and the wait ends with the release of Source Code, another venture in to the world of sci-fi. It's worth noting though that Jones came in fairly late on the project so it won't have had the same level of creative input that Moon, very much his baby, had.



Jake Gyllenhaal is Captain Colter Stevens, a helicopter pilot in the American Army just back from a tour in Afghanistan. He is now part of a special military programme that, through cutting edge technology (and some jargon about electric pulses from people's memories), is able to relive the last 8 minutes of an individual's life and attempt to solve crimes through picking up valuable clues. It's kind of a virtual reality system where our hero is put in the body of someone else. On this occasion he is trying to find out who planted a bomb on a Chicago bound train so that the bomber can be stopped from striking again. This system is known as The Source Code. In terms of the film though, it's kind of Groundhog Day meets Minority Report.

It's an interesting idea and I admit from seeing the trailer a couple of months back, I've been looking forward to it, particularly as it's under the stewardship of Duncan Jones. And, I have to say, it's a very good follow up to Moon. It's not got the same subtle, indie nature, it's much more of a mainstream action pic, but it's executed very well. It rolls along nicely, and at only 90-odd minutes long, the repetition doesn't get a chance to get boring at all, with Jones varying each 8 minute segment nicely and using neat tricks to cover ground that has already been seen. Plus we get to see the explosion from a number of different viewpoints. Action galore.

The other thing that the film does very well is sub-plot. So much so that the story of Stevens' existence on the Source Code programme, which begins as nothing more than an undercurrent, quickly becomes the main focus of the film. You begin the movie thinking it's going to be a different take on the Speed idea, but before you know it things have shifted and that aspect becomes almost incidental, as Stevens tries to uncover the origins and why he is involved. This means of course that Gyllenhaal's role is much more than the archetypal action hero, and he has to flex his acting muscles instead which he does very well. He spends the first 20 minutes or so in a constant state of confusion which in the hands of someone else could easily become grating and increasingly irritating. However, Gyllenhaal is very good and this is much more of a Zodiac or Brokeback Mountain performance rather than Prince of Persia or The Day After Tomorrow. This change of tack does mean that the bomb plot reaches an anti-climatical conclusion, but if you do realise by that point that it's no longer the centre of the piece, then it shouldn't cause too much of a problem.

There is also the sprinklings of a romance story in there as well, which is where Michelle Monaghan's character comes into play. It's not a massive part of the film so doesn't get in the way of things in what is already a fairly congested running time, but she is decent and the chemistry between the two of them gives the film a bit more heart than there otherwise would have been. There's also a bit of humour here and there as well, adding a fluffiness to the science-fiction, in a similar way to what worked so well in The Adjustment Bureau.

Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright make up the remainder of the main cast, the former as the one manning the controls of the Source Code and the latter as it's inventor. Wright is practically two dimensional and a bit pantomime villain in his delivery but Farmiga's is arguably the best performance in the film, restricted to sitting in a chair talking into a headset, she adds some real emotion to the story and the developing relationship between her and Gyllenhaal's character, without them ever really being face to face, is a real factor in making the film feel very heartfelt as it nears it's conclusion.

A conclusion that has split audiences and critics alike, but one that I really liked and was totally invested in. It reminded me in many ways of a lot of the recent Doctor Who stories by Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat, an ending, without giving too much away, that was positive, yet dark, and emphasising the joy and all of the pleasure that can be found in humanity.

It's not Moon, but it is a very well made, exciting science-fiction action film with a heart that should leave you feeling happy yet slightly sad at the same time.