Alternative Reality Bites

Movies: Source Code

Source Code might blow your mind, but it probably won't touch your heart.

This inventive film, directed by Duncan Jones and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, is being touted as the next Inception.But Source Code doesn't measure up to Inception in two ways: special effects and emotional resonance. Still, Source Code is a fascinating film in its own right.

Like Inception, Source Code is concerned with the concept of alternative or parallel universes. In Inception, these parallel realities were dreams (inside dreams inside dreams) and in Source Code the parallel realities are different paths we could have taken in the past.



Gyllenhaal plays Colter Stevens, an army pilot shot down somewhere in Afghanistan. He wakes up to find himself strapped in a metallic pod of some sort, with some mysterious officials communicating with him via TV screen. Vera Farminga plays Captain Colleen Godwin. Godwin explains to Stevens that he is now part of "Operation Beleaguered Castle"--a project being developed by the Air Force that allows individuals to relive the last few minutes of another individual's life. Stevens' mission is to relive the last minutes of a man named Sean Fentress, who was on a commuter train in Chicago that was blown up by a terrorist. The army officials believe that the person who blew up the train is planning a bigger, far more deadly act of terrorism in the heart of Chicago. If Stevens can find who is responsible, they may be able to apprehend the terrorist before he can kill anyone else. So Stevens is sent back, again and again (comparisons to Groundhog's Day are apt), to discover the identity of the bomber.

Of course, Stevens is curious to know why he can't just try to disable the bomb or get the passengers safely off the train. Won't that save them? According to Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright, creepy and awesome here), the man behind this whole source code business, the answer is no. Those people have already died. Trying to save them would be pointless, because they would only be saved within the tiny microcosmic world of the source code.

Whatever that means. I think one of Souce Code's problems is that it doesn't explain the science behind the idea enough. We just have to take Dr. Rutledge at his word: it works this way because I say it does. Now stop asking questions and find the damn terrorist! Like Stevens, the audience doesn't have much to go on. It's not until the end, when Stevens--with the help of Godwin--disobeys Rutledge's orders, that we get to see what actually happens when Stevens tries to save the people on the train. And it's in these last minutes of the film where the philosophical meat lies: are we on a linear track in life? Or are there infinite paths we could have taken and infinite versions of ourselves who did take those paths?

Ultimately, Source Code is like a full-length episode of The Twilight Zone. It presents an intriguing, science fiction-y brain teaser and leaves you with something to think about, and maybe even haunt you, but it doesn't hit you in the gut. It doesn't affect your emotions. At least, it didn't affect MY emotions. Gyllenhaal's character is given a love interest because, hey, Gyllenhaal's a romantic leading man. If he's in a film, there better be smooching, whether the smoochee is a pretty girl (Michelle Monaghan in Source Code) or Heath Ledger. But seriously, the romantic subplot seemed kind of pointless and forced. There's only so much bonding that can occur in an 8-minute timespan, even if those 8 minutes are lived over and over. The other "emotional" message of the film lies in a question that Gyllenhaal literally asks Monaghan multiple times: "What would you do if you only had a minute to live?" The heartwarming answer, "I'd make those minutes count", suggest Jones trying to insert a carpe diem message into the film. But it doesn't work in this case because these people die in a terrorist attack. They were probably picking their noses and scratching their butts in the last seconds of their lives because they didn't expect to die.

Anyway, those are a few gripes I have with the film. But as far as movies go, Source Code isn't bad at all. The acting is very good--I love Gyllenhaal because he is able to bring sensitivity and vulnerability to traditionally masculine characters (cowboys, soldiers, viagra salesmen). The film is also suspenseful and never repetitive, despite the fact that Stevens is force to repeat those damn 8 minutes of Sean Fentress' life over and over again. Most importantly, Source Code has an interesting and unique premise that provides lots of food for thought. That's something you don't find in many movies. My beef is that this premise was not delved into nor fleshed out enough.

4 out of 5 stars