One of the craftiest and satisfying thrillers in years by leaps and bounds! GROUNDHOG DAY meets THE TWILIGHT ZONE meets SPEED via INCEPTION; GYLLENHAAL excels

Rating: 9/10 (2 April 2011)

SOURCE CODE (2011) *** ½ Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright. Frenetic and engrossing sci-fi thriller mash-up of a "GROUNDHOG DAY" meets "THE TWILIGHT ZONE" via "SPEED": stoic soldier Gyllenhaal (a career high giving a complex turn) finds himself hurtling back in time to an 8 minute pocket in a governmental/military experiment to unravel a terrorist plot marking Chicago for nuclear annihilation via a commuter train bombing set upon its path and the time ticking away. Novice screenwriter Ben Ripley delivers the sweat-inducing, edge-of-your-seat attention to detail with his pretzel-twisty mind f*cking (ala "INCEPTION" – what is real? What isn't?) and director Duncan Jones keeps things even keeled as all hell breaks loose largely in shrewdly making his performers 'talk' and not "SHOUT" their precise and important dialogue making the audience listen and think (Thank you!) with his stars doing the heavy lifting with aplomb (Monaghan is a nice touch as the sexy girl-next-door type that Gyllenhaal eventually falls for in the process to save her and perhaps himself). One of the craftiest and satisfying thrillers in years by leaps and bounds!