Film File - Source Code

An interesting sci-fi offering directed by David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones, who made such an effective job of his debut feature, 'Moon', last year. Promoted as "a smart, fast-paced action thriller that challenges our assumptions about time and space", 'Source Code' does have a few tricks up its sleeve that puts it a step above the usual fare in this bracket. Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) awakens on a speeding commuter train with no idea how he got there. Seated across from him is Christina (Michelle Monaghan), a woman he doesn't know, but who clearly believes she knows him. Taking refuge in the bathroom, Stevens is shocked to see another man's reflection in the mirror as well as ID cards in his wallet belonging to schoolteacher Sean Fentress. Suddenly, a massive explosion rips through the train. Almost instantly, Stevens is transported to a high-tech isolation unit where a uniformed woman, Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), demands to know everything he saw. It turns out Stevens has been on a high-priority mission to identify a bomber who destroyed a train just hours earlier and who plans to kill thousands more with a much larger explosion in the heart of Chicago. A top-secret programme, codenamed Source Code, allows him to exist briefly in the parallel reality of the doomed commuter train. Each time he returns to the train, he has just eight minutes to uncover the bomber's identity. However, even as he gathers new bits of evidence each time, his quarry still eludes him. The more he learns, the more convinced he becomes that he can prevent the deadly blast from happening - but the clock is ticking down and he's running out of time. With the notion of inhabiting other bodies already a winning sell in last year's 'Avatar', this tale of time travel-meets-thriller is a cleverly plotted and visually inventive actioner where Gyllenhaal, Farmiga and Monaghan combine very well. With touches of Hitchcock and The Twilight Zone, the notion of repeated time travel to the same train compartment to identify a potential bomber is smartly sketched in a claustrophobic and nervous plotline where Gyllenhaal is the unwitting pawn trying to stop a mass murder and save his own skin in the process. Despite the repetitious plot device, director Jones interprets Ben Ripley's smart script as a jangling thriller where an ordinary guy finds himself coping with an extraordinary situation. Though you may guess the ending, the clever route taken to get you to the final frame is suspenseful and engaging - and no danger that anything like a yawn will cross your face during the process. A technical gem.