Source Code rethinks Groundhog Day as a thriller, posing the question: what if, instead of covering a lame news story, Bill Murray had to stop a terrorist strike?Posted on 04/01/2011 11:53:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
The new film rethinks Groundhog Day as a thriller, posing the question: what if, instead of covering a lame news story, Bill Murray had to stop a terrorist strike?
Source Code rethinks Groundhog Day as a thriller, posing the question: what if, instead of covering a lame news story, Bill Murray had to stop a terrorist strike?
Canny psychological thrillers don’t come often enough, which makes Source Code a rare treat which recalls bits of Memento, Inception, and Hitchcock movies like North by Northwest.
For an Army captain named Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), the situation is getting stranger and stranger on a train. He awakens on a commuter railway car where a cute brunette (an especially warm and likeable Michelle Monaghan) is chatting with him like an old pal. He has no idea who she is and she seems to think he’s a guy named Sean Fentress. Yet when he looks in the mirror, he sees someone he doesn’t recognize (a different actor pops up as Gyllenhaal’s reflection, in the first of many simple but effectively unnerving touches). Moreover, the train he is on is never going to reach its destination in Chicago.
Capt. Stevens, a veteran of some heavy fighting in Afghanistan, finds out that he isn’t actually on the train; his body is locked inside what appears to be some kind of capsule where his only source of communication is with an Air Force captain named Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) who gives him instructions over a TV monitor. Via her and her boss, a hesitant scientific mastermind named Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), Capt. Stevens finds out that his consciousness is being catapulted out of his mind and inserted into the body of Sean like a player in a video game. The scene on the train is a mere simulation of events that occurred before a major terrorist attack. It’s Capt. Stevens’s most vital mission to go into this simulation or Source Code to find out who is behind the impending strike, but he has only eight minutes to do so before the program ends and he has to start over.
One flaw with this usually smart and expertly paced film is that Stevens seems to have an infinite supply of chances to go back on the train to find out what is happening, albeit eight minutes at a time. Couldn’t anybody crack a mystery given enough time?
But as in Groundhog Day, each visit to the same situation plays out slightly differently as Stevens starts to piece clues together. One interlude is a waste of our time, when Stevens suspects a swarthy man of being the terrorist and harasses him. This situation is an obvious red herring because as all experienced moviegoers know, there is an all but total ban in Hollywood on presenting anyone who looks like he might be an Arab or a Muslim as a terrorist. (Suggestion for a brilliant whodunnit: Have a Muslim actually be guilty of something. It’ll be a shocker.)
The sci-fi and surreal aspects of the script are impressively handled by the director Duncan Jones, who as a baby was introduced to the world under the unfortunate 70s name of Zowie Bowie and is David Bowie’s son. (David Bowie’s real name is David Jones and the younger man’s full name is Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones). As in Jones’ first film, the cerebral thriller Moon, an isolated man finds himself lost in a coldly technological maze trying to find out more about his own identity. Both movies carefully marshal special effects, saving up weird images for singular, vivid moments.
In both cases, it’s a little unclear where the story is headed, and this too is a highly welcome trait at a time when too many films are far too predictable. Source Code lopes along so quickly that it seems to have things wrapped up early in the second hour, but at that point Jones becomes more interested in a soulful rumination on what’s happening inside Capt. Stevens’ mind. Though Jones doesn’t go terribly deep into the philosophical questions, he does bring in some notions about dignity, duty, and the bonds between fathers and sons that give the movie much more gravitas than the average popcorn picture, even if he misses an opportunity to give the terrorist strike an unexpected political shading. (Jones leaves the details behind the motive unsatisfyingly general.) Source Code isn’t flawless, but it is a lot of fun. For the most part it’s a gripping brain-teaser that rewards your intelligence instead of insulting it.
Lots of “mind” movies lately.
Inception, Adjustment Bureau, and Unknown.
the director of this movie also directed the movie ‘Moon’, his first.
I would definitely recommend that movie to any sci-fi fan.
wierd = Weird
Sounds like “7 Days”, the television series. Solomon is right, there is nothing new under the sun.
This trend in movies tells me that people don't trust what they experience. They have a hunch that there is something else out there. Perhaps something more real than the things they experience each day. These movies scratch an itch that people feel.
So it’s like Quantum Leap does a murder mystery? Cool. (But I’m sure it’s been done)
I seem to remember the X-files had an episode a bit like this.
And Star Trek TNG did something similar with the Tychan Rift story.
Thanks for filling me in on “Suckerpunch.” Saw the previews, wasn’t sure what it was about.
I will add it to my “mind” movie list.
Quite a salient observation. Have you read "How Should We Then Live?" by Francis Schaeffer? He said much the same thing back in the 70's. Schaeffer's point, I think, was that once people excise the real God from their lives, deep in their minds they know they've lost the underpinnings of reality. Anyway, I liked your comment.
I’ve heard of “How Should We Then Live?”, but haven’t looked at it. I would agree, however, that people an innate yearning for “something” beyond what they see. If society acts like God has no longer has a place, then people will still look for something beyond what the world offers. We know that we were made for more than this.
There is a quote from pulp writer Jim Thompson which fits here: "There are thirty-two ways to tell a story, and I've used every one of them. But there is only one plot -- things are not as they seem.
<>pulp writer Jim Thompson
Amen. Ran through all his stuff when it was republished by Lizard books in the late 80’s.
Sorry for the late post, but I was looking for reviews for Source Code before I download it..
I;m in the same boat, Jake G is a major lefty but if you are not put off by his politics, then I’m cool with it.
I make a major exception with Matt Damon movies: i hate him and his lefty politics but the a-hole just couldn’t shut up for one month before bashing conservatives or Bush, so I boycott him completely...even if his movies are uploaded on bittorrent for free.
I watched Sucker Punch with my GF, and it’s a chick movie..
I think Zack Snyder wanted to project the theme of sexual abuse’ and mix it with special effects, therefore becoming one of the 10 biggest flops of 2011, and a loss for WB. Some people I know of who have the Blue Ray skipped to the sfx sequences..
BUT: the special effects was absolutely wicked, when Baby Doll’s imagination went “nuts”.
Check other reviews on Sucker Punch. Might not want to.
But dittos on Dark City - awesome.
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