Duncan Jones with a 2nd Home-Run!

Rating: Null/10 (16 April 2011)

Two years ago a small independent sci-fi film called Moon was released. It was one of the three best films of that year. So I knew Duncan Jones was a director to look out for. A few months ago when I heard about the plot for Source Code I thought it would be an experiment gone wrong. The trailer reinforced those ideas even more, to the point that I never bothered to anticipate it or even know when it was about to come out. Then it was released to some strong reviews. The film deserved them, because this is Duncan Jones at another strong outing.
Source Code handles some sci-fi ideas with it's plot in a very well thought-out manner. The screenplay is pretty great, especially when we have seen films 'play out dejavus' before. But Source Coce represents a new idea. It is true that the actual mechanics of the film's 'Source Code' would probably not be able to work in the real world, but this film succeeds in the same way that Moon succeeded. It deals with some very interesting ideas that are center in the plot of one male lead. Jake Gyllenhaal is pretty great in the main role. He hasn't had a performance or film this good since... well, a LONG time. Michelle Monaghan is also pretty good, and it's very easy to know why this character would be going out with a woman who's this likable. I also loved the ending.
Duncan Jones is 2 for 2 with this and Moon. Both are great thought-out films, although they do have different looks, since Moon was low-budget and this one definitely does feel a lot more mainstream. Jones kind of reminds me of how Christopher Nolan started out, with indies like Memento on to big films like The Dark Knight and Inception. Hopefully Jones becomes just as big (although better luck to Jones than Nolan at the Oscars, hehe).