BANG, rewind, BANG, rewind...

Rating: 8/10 (4 April 2011)

Time travel stories are a penny a dozen and as old as hills themselves, so it's always a challenge for filmmakers to come up with a new spin on a very old tale. This is where 'Source Code' comes in and thankfully, it succeeds.
Plot-wise the movie is very succinct: there's been a tragic terrorist incident involving a bomb on a Chicago train that resulted in huge loss of life. Another attack is imminent. Jake Gyllenhal plays a soldier – Colter Stevens - who's participating in a top secret experiment – the 'source code' of the title – whose job is to investigate the 8 minutes preceding the explosion so he can ascertain the identity of the bomber and hopefully prevent another catastrophe. The one negative side effect of this is he's ends up being constantly sent back in time only to get blown up again and again - until he can find out what exactly happened.
The movie plays out in a 'rinse and repeat' fashion, advancing bit by bit, gradually – and enticingly - revealing more and more information each time. With every replay, we see a new item of information or something we haven't really noticed before. If this scenario reminds you of a certain comedy starring Bill Murray and a groundhog, then you're not far wrong. It's the same basic concept of 'rewinding' time, but whereas the explanation of that movie was left to the viewer to decide how or why it was happening, Source Code tells you up front that there's a Sci-fi angle anchoring everything. You could also throw other movies like Vantage Point into the mix and you'll get the general drift that we're seeing a single event played out umpteenth times.
But thankfully there's a bit more going on besides endless 'play and rewinds' as Colter Stevens also has to figure out his place in the whole 'Source Code' experiment and as with the bomb plot, nuggets of information is given away at just enough intervals to keep the whole thing from becoming too repetitious.
The film is very well executed and acted. The scenario is intriguingly set up and the way it's told will have you glued to the screen from start to finish. In fact you won't want to drop your guard once – you'll be that intent on finding out what's going on in the increasing baffling narrative. The science of the time traveling is also very imaginative and is explained just enough for you to go along with the whole scenario. Of course there is a lot of mumbo-jumbo about quantum physics, but at the same time they don't overdo it to such an extent that you feel you're going to come down with a sever case of the Zzzzs anytime soon.
Jake Gyllenhaal is brilliant as the confused time travel guinea pig Colter Stevens and he effortlessly manages to anchor the whole potentially confusing scenario with a likable presence. He's entirely relatable as the 'every man' caught up in the nightmarish situation. Likewise Michelle Monaghan plays her part with a very appealing 'girl next door' quality and even if most of her role in the movie is of the 'rewinding' variety, it says something that she never allows it to go stale. Jeffery Wright is also excellent as the cold, limping, 'by the book' scientist who's spearheading the entire operation without a shred of morals on display.
Director Duncan Jones' last movie was Moon and admittedly this movie shares a similar DNA to it in that there's a lot of stuff about the nature of identity, second chances, and other life affirming messages, though as with Moon, you have to get through a lot of darkness before you get to the bright stuff. As with Christopher Nolan, he seems to have certain themes and traits that he's evidently very interested in.
The only letdown of this film is, so intent are the film makers/ distributors not to insult certain lucrative foreign markets, they're at pains to sledgehammer home the whole 'never judge a book by its cover' idea, which is a little bit of a disappointment considering the biggest threat to US security is from the very regions they're so keen to avoid offending in the first place. That's the only part of the movie that doesn't quite ring through, which is a shame considering everything else is so damn good.
Like the aforementioned Groundhog Day and Vantage Point before it, the biggest disadvantage of movies like this, is they have a low 'rewatchability' factor because they're so dependent on retelling the same event over and over. They generally wear out their welcome faster than a normal movie because the viewer becomes so familiar with the story beats that after even two viewings, it feels like you've already seen it a dozen times. Source Code is the same. Basically you get all the surprises the first time, but as a first time viewing experience, it's truly excellent stuff and will keep you hooked to the very end.