When Duncan Jones ’ indie SF story of a lonely clon on the Moon dispatch house back in 2008 , it was a revelation . It proved that science fiction did n’t need elaborate peculiar effects to tamp a punch – great ideas and inspired acting worked well than millions of dollars of CGI . The big question was whether Jones could pull off the same level of awesome in his sophomore film , Source Code , starring Jake Gyllenhaal and hitting theaters April 1 . We saw the flick at South by Southwest over the weekend , and have a spoiler - free assessment for you .
The fiber discipline
Like Moon , Source Code is a character study of one man ( Colter , played by Gyllenhaal ) who is immobilize in a world he does n’t quite understand . The flick begins with Colter , a archetype whose last memories are of running missions in Afghanistan , fire up up in the body of a schoolteacher on a train . After meeting the woman sitting across from him , and realizing that she thinks he ’s this other bozo , he goes kooky and the railroad train explodes . Then he arouse up again , this sentence in what appear like a weird , trashed cockpit . He ’s in his flight of steps suit and is strapped into a chair next to leak out engine components . His only connective to the away world is a computer covert where a military policeman , Goodwin ( Vera Farmiga ) , tells him he ’s on a delegacy to find a terrorist on a train .
befuddled , manipulated , and still not quite certain he ’s on add-in with this mission , Colter bump himself send back to the same train – where he has only 8 minute during each trip to seek to work out the mystery of who set the bomb that blows up the railroad train .
The first half of the film , where Colter tries to solve the mystery of the attack and the mystery story of where the hell he is , is definitely reminiscent of Moon . We sympathize with Colter – Gyllenhaal plays him as a genial - hearted piece who authentically desire to lay aside people , but who also has a salubrious disbelief about military missions where his briefing understandably make no sense . Though sometimes Colter ’s fib gets a picayune sappy , it ’s also authentically moving .
The science in the fiction
Many will resist that the SF assumption of Source Code makes no sense – everything hinge on a piece of applied science whose “ source computer code ” permit Colter take an 8 - minute jump into a presently - to - be - dead man ’s organic structure . And there ’s no denying that this movie suffers because its engineering is n’t just magically powerful but discrepant . Plus , the disturbed scientist who create it is a little too much like a charade of the soapy , helping hand - scratch malevolent guy who does n’t care who gets hurt as long as his invention is unleashed .
This was also the main proceeds that people had with Moon , where the technologies were used as metaphors rather than self - ordered bits of futuristic science .
The horrors of war
Luckily , the metaphor at the heart of Source Code is as muscular as the one in Moon . As we watch Colter choke back to the train over and over , absorb in flame and dying no matter what he does , we get the downcast feeling that he ’s reliving the horror of war . It ’s as if we ’re trap in the PTSD nightmares of a veterinarian . No matter what happens , no matter how many the great unwashed he has the opportunity to save , his dreaming are full of fiery destruction . I think this is the most interesting part of the film , and Colter ’s dawning understanding of what ’s happening to him gibe nicely into this subtext to the action .
And the cockpit fix where Colter generate after each trip to the train feels like the ultimate war nightmare . He ca n’t seem to break away from this cramped way – except to front another mission that ends in decease .
Though the film is ultimately upbeat , with fiber who are sometimes improbably ethical , there ’s a sorrowfulness to the storytelling that ’s seldom incur in action movies . A relentless despair hangs over Colter ’s every move .
The verdict
Will this motion-picture show blow you aside the way Moon did ? Probably not . It ’s construct around a mystery with a payoff that ’s middling interesting , but the final act of the plastic film strains credibility so much that it will deform your solitaire too . Still , it ’s mystify the earmark of a Jones motion-picture show , where character exploitation trump CGI bullshit , and idea outweigh activeness . The problem here is that the idea feel a minuscule unfinished . You ’ll be intrigued but may be left unsatisfied .
The bottom line is that you ’ll require to see this flick , and it will definitely move you and make you cogitate . But it ’s uneven .
We ’ll have a full review for you when the movie comes out April 1 .
first impressionsMovies
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and civilisation news in your inbox daily .
News from the future , birth to your present tense .
You May Also Like
