Time-bending thriller

Rating: 7/10 (24 November 2012)

"Suspension of disbelief". It's an agreement between viewers and the people who take it upon themselves to entertain us. We all know its fake but put that aside for the short time they've asked for our attention. In this latest Jake Gyllenhaal film, that agreement is stretched to its absolute limit and for some, beyond.
Gyllenhaal plays army captain Colter Stevens who's suddenly found himself on a train across from woman who keeps referring to him by another name. Additionally, she's talking to him as if she knows him. After a relatively short time the train meets with a catastrophe and Stevens is in a confined area staring up at a monitor being asked to explain the events. Still struggling with memory issues, he's given the assignment, "find the perpetrator", and returned to the same situation. This series of events occurs several times in a way that would more likely remind many viewers of Vantage Point, assuming there are many people who saw it. That said, it isn't intent on inspiring a debate on the time traveler's paradox or parallel universes. It's a whodunit adrenaline ride made to entertain and it does just that.