Source Code (2011)

Source Code is film that features Jake Gyllenhaal who plays someone who has to relive the same eight minutes over and over again in order to find out who the bomber is on a Chicago train. It takes a long time for it to settle down but being directed by Duncan Jones (Moon) this wasn’t going to be your typical movie and despite it being closer to Inception than any film I can think of. Now the idea that the same eight minutes were going to be played over and over again was something that I wasn’t looking forward to however whilst the same eight minutes are played over and over again its never the same. As the film progresses, Gylenhaal’s character wises up to what is going on and the shocking truth behind the character of Colter Stevens is played out very well.

I’m not a massive fan of Gyllenhaal having only seen him in Donny Darko which I hated and The Day After Tomorrow where he wasn’t bad but its not a particularly great movie. He was very good in this film and was impressive throughtout. Michelle Monaghan (Christina Warren) and Vera Farmiga (Colleen Goodwin) were both very good and helped the story move along in different ways. I thought that Farmiga had the slightly stronger character as she was the one that knew the truth and was the one that seemed to be most willing to give Stevens his wish. Jeffrey Wright (Felix in Casino Royale) was brilliant as Dr Rutledge, he was like some sort of evil genius.

I enjoyed this film. I thought that the ending was the perfect way to end it and the sight of Gyllenhaal in the tank with the lower half of his body missing was quite impressive. There was a clever end to the film and Source Film is a film that everyone should watch. It’s another film that shows you can do smart films with what was presumably a big budget ($32million). It shows the Michael Bay’s of this world that you can spend a lot of money and make a smart movie.