Science Fantasy Bests Science Fiction

Rating: 9/10 (4 April 2011)

Source Code is a fantastic movie, a smart thriller that gives you a satisfying and humane story and lead character. Weirdly, such a great film is being classified in the wrong genre. Nearly everyone is call it science fiction, leading the film's critics to call Source Code's science "stupid" and "nonsensical". But Source Code was not trying to describe the intricate mechanics of time travel the way films like "Primer" and "Donnie Darko" have explored. Rather, Duncan Jones was using time travel as a simple plot device to tell an emotionally-driven story.
Now, the explanation for how the Source Code works is quickly described by Dr. Rutledge and is overtly simple. He just says that they created a machine through "quantum physics and parabolic calculus" that can witness time rather than travel through time. That is pretty much the extent of the "science" you get in this so-called science fiction movie. When you start to think about it, it really doesn't make much sense. But, Duncan Jones wasn't trying to show explain how time travel works, which is to put it simply, a foolhardy effort. What makes this film great, is Colter Stevens' emotional journey aboard the Source Code.
The film is very well paced, especially for a film as short as 93 minutes. The dialog flows and makes sense, especially when Colter has relived the crisis a few times and is able to make dead-on predictions on what will happen. In light of the heaviness of the film's looming threat of death and destruction, there's enough comic relief to liven up the situation but not too much for you to be drawn out of the film. The film is also remarkably shot for a film that has a total of four settings. Then there is this spectacular shot of a character tumbling out of a vehicle and you see every thud and bump against the ground that looks very, very real. However, the film's script and direction are only icing to the delicious cake of character development you get in this film.
Colter is a sympathetic man who's caught in a shitty situation. The man was a soldier and has real-life issues to work out with his father. Now all of a sudden he's found himself in a "Groundhog Day" scenario of reliving the same horrible moment over and over again just to find clues of the terrorist's identity. You feel for Colter's plight, and Gyllenhaal injects the pathos needed for the audience to care about his character and the subplot involving his father. Mind you, this subplot could have been excised from the film and nothing would be lost to the story, but a whole chunk of Colter's character would have been lost as a result.
What could never be cut from the film would be Colter's relationship with Monaghan's Christina. Christina is the light at the end of this hellish tunnel for Colter. Never mind that Monaghan is drop dead beautiful, she also carries a sincere sense of sweetness and care for Colter, or rather the man Colter has become. And Monaghan shows her acting chops just as well as Gyllenhaal does, so pay attention to this rising star in the future. Farminga's Goodwin is the only person who aids Colter in making sense of this insanity and the veteran actress does her job just as well.
The film only had two minor problems. First was Wright's character, who was a little too much a caricature to be believable. Particularly because he shows zero empathy to Colter's plight makes us detached from him. Granted, it makes us side with Colter more, but Wright had a genuine goal that he could stand by proudly, but the actor does nothing with it. There's really no strong villain as you would expect from a terrorist plot, but I guess that time was cut in favor of developing the strong three leads.
But getting back to my initial discussion of Source Code's genre, the film's "science" is laughably stupid and simple. However, it is a "scientific" explanation nonetheless for how Colter is able to relive the same moment in time over and over again. And this is what makes this film fall under science fantasy, a genre where the scientific explanation for plot devices are absurdly simple. But what the genre loses in making sense to the scientific community, it makes up for in scores with audiences by telling a compelling story. I've spent a good few paragraphs gushing about how emotionally connecting the characters were and how well the film is paced. Obviously, I wasn't too hung up about the science in the film, because I had so much fun with everything else.
Source Code is a smart and fast-paced thriller that gives you characters you give a snap about, to-the-point dialog, great acting, and a surreal adventure in time loops and parallel universes. Don't be scared by the science, it's satisfying light, and doesn't get in the way of the tense plot of locating a bomber aboard a train. This film has everything that I love in a film, and take you on one hell of a time trotting adventure.