The two Jakes

Rating: 7/10 (1 April 2011)

Early in the movie Jake Gyllenhaal looks into a mirror on the commuter train and sees Sean, the passenger he's been "zapped" into, staring back at him. This moment reveals the film's - to me - fatal flaw. Shouldn't we be looking at Sean in the train scenes and only see Jake in the time capsule scenes? Of course, this would limit Jake's screen time - unless he played Sean and the other actor played the time traveller.
You can imagine how this was pitched: INCEPTION meets UNSTOPPABLE with a bit of GROUNDHOG DAY and THE TIME-TRAVELLER'S WIFE thrown into the mix. The mix is a hell of a mish-mash. The film's dynamic pace - and Gyllenaal's considerable screen presence - carry the story past its many inconsistencies, but it's only fun while you're in the cinema. Its internal logic is flawed, particularly in the way it works up to a "surprise" ending which, when you think about it, isn't really that much of a surprise. How else could it have ended?