The Key is in Caring about the Characters

Rating: 7/10 (14 January 2016)

I don't get why women get all goobery about Jake Gyllenhaal. He's always looked like he needs a shave and a shower. Gyllenhaal plays the main character in Duncan Jones' Source Code, an almost-always well-plotted and coherent alternative-reality thriller. Whether or not his character, a (dead?) US Army helicopter pilot, needs a shave or a shower is ultimately immaterial. Gyllenhaal's Colter Stevens is a man tasked with finding out who is going to set off a nuclear device in Chicago, and he has to do it by repeating an 8 minute segment of time on a doomed commuter train.
I'm not going to go into any more detail about the story line simply because I still don't completely understand it. What I do understand is that Director Jones and his screenwriter, Ben Ripley, have created a compelling story of one man's torment as he begins to realize that many, many lives depend on him suffering a fiery death over and over in order to find out how to stop a greater act of mayhem.
Although at times the movie devolves into slickery and silliness, Source Code is not insulting to the viewer's intelligence. Don't get me wrong--this is not a deep movie filled with emotional significance, but it is thoughtful and earnest. SC wants you to be intrigued, but being involved will do just fine. I feel a kinship with any movie that has enough IQ and EQ to make me want to rush back to see more when I have to step out to deal with reality.
Jake Gyllenhaal might lack a bit of subtlety at times and Michelle Monaghan seems too wholesome and trusting, but the viewer simply can't stop caring about them. Throw in Vera Farmiga as the US Air Force officer who pilots Stevens through his "passes" on the doomed train, and the viewer has a full set of sympathetic characters. Farmiga's Captain Goodwin is a mix of professional focus and empathy, and there are more than a few instances of her struggling with not revealing to Stevens his true condition.
By the end of Source Code, I was unsure and confused of and about certain aspects of the story, but I could forgive the occasional attacks of murkiness for the general feeling of satisfaction. Throw in my acceptance of a regularly unkempt Gyllenhall and there's been a good reason to blow 90+ minutes.