SCI-FI THRILLER; 1hr 33min
STARRING: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga
Out of time: Monaghan and Gyllenhaal
Picture Groundhog Day with a Twilight Zone hook: US Army helicopter pilot Capt Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal), plucked without his knowledge — long and extra-strange story — from assignment in Iraq, has been co-opted into the revolutionary Source Code program, which repeatedly slams him into the body of another man in replays of the final eight minutes of that man’s life.
Coulter’s particular, mega-stressing eight minutes are played and replayed in a Chicago passenger train, where a bomb explodes, killing everyone on board. The purpose of his time-tangling involvement is to locate the bomb and the bomber, thereby preventing a second, more cataclysmic attack. And let’s not forget the fetching woman (Monaghan) in the seat opposite his…
Keeping all points slick and tight, director Duncan Jones (Moon) ricochets between the air force base where Coulter is secured (with Farmiga as his simpatico lifeline) and that speeding-to-doom Twilight Zone train. A twisty ball of tightly strung tension, Source Code is a full-on roll from start to stop, with Gyllenhaal at matching peak pitch. Fantastically clever, unpredictable and alive, this is one thriller that fully lives up to the name.
