Eye Candy #562 - "The Source Code"

The Source Code:  This over-praised sci-fi film is the second feature from director Duncan Jones, who gave us the fantastic “Moon”.  It’s a more straight-forward thriller about a young man, Colter Stevens (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), who wakes up on a train bound for Chicago, across from a beautiful woman he doesn’t know named Christina (played by Michelle Monaghan).  Several minutes later, the train blows up, killing everyone on board.  Except Colter isn’t dead – he comes to in a sealed module, with only a monitor for contact to the outside world.  A military handler appears (played by Vera Farmiga), who informs Colter he is part of a program called “the source code” that, through vaguely defined quantum mechanics, allows them to recreate the last eight minutes of a person’s life.  His job is to relive the last 8 minutes of one of the victims so that he can find the person responsible so a second bombing can be prevented.  He is also told not to attempt to alter any events.  The problem being that the source code is not a virtual reality program, it’s an alternate reality program.  So Colter attempts various means of learning the identity of the bomber, the location of the bomb, and deals with various red herrings (if you’re paying attention, you’ll figure out who the bomber is in the first 15 minutes), but he also finds himself identifying more and more with Christina and the other people on the train and decides to save them.  Jeffrey Wright co-stars as the head of the source code program (which let me just say, is a terrible title for a movie).  Less nebulous and metaphorical than “Moon”, and honestly, not nearly as interesting to watch, “The Source Code” plays like a fairly standard Hollywood thriller – boy meets girl under extreme circumstances and must save her and the day.  There are literally dozens of movies that follow that pattern.  And the execution here isn’t particularly noteworthy or technically remarkable.  Nor does the plot hold up to close scrutiny (if you want a general explanation of how the source code works, you’re not going to get it).  Gyllenhaal and Monaghan are fine in the leads, but Farmiga and Wright are wasted in do-nothing roles.  This one didn’t live up to the hype.  See “Moon” instead.  Woodchuck sez, "Nothing special.”