A nice piece of Sci-Fi... with a twist...

Rating: 8/10 (10 April 2011)

Having watched, and loved, the first film directed by Duncan Jones, Moon (2009), I was very interested to see this, his second feature. Fortunately this time it was showing at my local cinema and I didn't have to make a forty mile round trip to see it. It's quite an interesting time-travel based story with a bit of a twist at the end. I'll give you my thoughts after this brief summary (summary haters, and those that don't wish to know about the plot, please find that bomber and save the day while I write the next paragraph).
Colter Stevens is a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan who wakes up on a train sitting across from a beautiful woman, Christina Warren. He is confused and disorientated at first, but after a while he begins to calm down. Just as he thinks everything is going to be alright, BOOM the train blows up and he finds himself back in some kind of capsule. The face of Colleen Goodwin appears on a monitor and asks him if he has found the bomber. Even more confusion sweeps over Stevens as he tries to figure out just what has happened to him. Goodwin calms him down and sends him back in, explaining that it is very important that he finds the bomb and the bomber. She also explains that he will only have eight minutes each time. Going back, he realises that the woman across from him is a friend of the person he is inhabiting. He goes back quite a few times, each time to the same point in time and each time he discovers more about Christina and each time he gets closer to finding the bomber. He eventually becomes obsessed with saving Christina and the other passengers, and to this end he takes a massive risk. I will end my summary here, don't want the Spoiler Police after me.
This is a very well made film with lots of attention to detail, everything fits and everything works pretty well. There are overtones of Groundhog Day (1993), in that a time period is repeated, but I found this one very different. One of the best performances from Jake Gyllenhaal as Colter Stevens since Donnie Darko (IMO). Michelle Monaghan did a good job as Christina Warren as did Vera Farmiga as Colleen Goodwin. Also an honourable mention goes to Jeffrey Wright as Dr. Routlege.
Although not as good as 'Moon', IMO, I really liked this film and I would watch it again. It's nicely paced, there's a pretty good soundtrack, although it's quite subdued and at ninety three minutes, it's not too long. Over all, it's a well written, nicely paced piece of science fiction with quite a nice twist at the end. Comparisons have been made with 'Inception' but I'm not even going to go there, they are totally different Recommended.
My Score: 8.3/10