The Gist:
Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a solider who wakes to find himself in a very confusing situation. One moment he is sitting on a train talking to Christina (Michelle Monaghan), a woman whom he doesn’t recognize but seems to know him, then the train explodes and he finds himself waking up in a pod. After conversing with an army colleague Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) he learns that he know has the skills to be able to be sent back into the past (for eight minutes at a time) in order to solve a crime… this time he is to find who the bomber was that planted the bomb on the train before they can cause other destruction.
The Review:
Director, Duncan Jones stunned the world with his debut film Moon – a film that many of us felt was the best film of 2009… but now of course comes his difficult second film. It is the second film in a director’s career that can make or break his future. Luckily for Jones he seems to be a naturally brilliant director because Source Code is yet another sensational film… a sleeper hit in the making.
The plot does sound like it may hurt your brain like Inception did, but Jones does a fabulous job as director and makes Ben Ripley’s script accessible for his audience without making you feel completely dumb or leaving you confused. You certainly won’t fully understand Source Code but you will still find it a damn good watch.
Source Code is a film that will constantly keep you guessing to what happens next but you certainly won’t be able to pick the ending early on. Jones controls the film nicely and while the special effects may look a little dodgy occasionally you quickly forget about that when you realise how good the story is. The main cast are also sensational with Gyllenhaal following up his brilliant performance in Love & Other Drugs with yet another faultless performance.
The Verdict:
This is the film that shows that Duncan Jones is set to become one of the best directors of our generation. He hasn’t let Hollywood taint his style and Source Code is a worthy follow up to Moon. This is a stunning sci-fi that is sure to have a cult following… now we just have to count down the days until some television executive decides that it would make a good TV series.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkTrG-gpIzE
Director: Duncan Jones
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga
Classification: 12
Running time: 93 mins
Release Date: 26th July 2011
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