Movie Review: "Source Code"

   I am an ardent fan of the cinematic arts. Although I have certain genre preferences, I don’t let that stifle my curiosity and close myself to different flavors of entertainment. That said...I am a huge fan of science fiction, super hero and action movies! Please visit my other blog The Boxed Office for reviews, exclusively, on these types of movies.

The Cast: 

Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright.

   Jake Gyllenhaal is superb and delivers a great performance as a man caught in a situation he doesn't understand and cannot control while ingrained with a sense of duty to follow instructions. There isn’t much for Michelle Monaghan to do besides play the role of neglected girlfriend looking for more...but she does it well and compliments the changes Gyllenhaal’s character takes through the movie. Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright play their supporting roles very well as a soldier following orders against her conscience and a scientist pushing to make his project viable without conscience, respectively.

The Plot: 

   United States Army helicopter pilot Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an unwilling participant in the Source Code, a project designed by Dr. Rutledge Jeffrey Wright) to gain valuable information by projecting the consciousness of Stevens into the last eight minutes of the life of another man that has already died in the past from a terrorist bombing.

   Stevens must discover who the bomber is to prevent him from continued acts of terror in the present. Through his trips in the Source Code, Stevens becomes convinced that he can, instead, alter past events and save thousands of lives including that of Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan), traveling companion and friend of the man Stevens inhabits.

   With each trip in the Source Code, more and more information is revealed as this story unfolds into a race-against-time thriller that will keep you guessing up until the very end.

   

The Verdict: 

   Source Code is gripping with more twists and turns than a pretzel. The fact that is keeps you guessing on so many levels makes you engross yourself in it in a desperate attempt to figure it all out with the main character. 

   Jake Gyllenhaal does a superb job of taking us with him on his mission to discover where the bomb is, who the bomber is, what happened to his real self and what can he really accomplish within the Source Code. Within all that, there is still a love story to be told and it is weaved within the movie very well to be a compliment instead of a distraction from all that is happening.

   I very much enjoy science-fiction thrillers and enjoy them even more when they take such an original approach. Although this film will certainly be compared to Deja Vu, it is worlds apart on every level that matters putting four cinnamon sticks, out of five, in my cup of tea.