Time Month - Mini Review: Source Code

So, 3 more of these to go... Just 3 more

OK, Source Code, a film about crime-solving and parallel realities, sounds right up my street. And the performance is decent 7.5 IMDb, 92% on rotten tomatoes made 147.3m on a $32m budget, even won an award for the best original screenplay, this should be a good one right? Right? Please!

OK, the story goeth thusly: US Army Pilot Colter Stevens is a test-subject for an experimental government programme. Recently, a bomb went off on a train and they have intel to believe the culprit plans to detonate a dirty bomb in Chicago. Using the power of pseudo-scientific bullsh*t, they put Stevens on the train but in the body of History Teacher Sean Fentress. The programme, the Source Code, allows him only 8 minutes to find out the identity of the bomber so the military can stop him.

Right, let’s start with my major issue with this movie. The people in the government agency do not explain anything! We get the gist from an info-dump on their third attempt with the source code. If he’d been well-informed it could’ve saved valuable time. I know he’s partially delirious but his handler, Coleen Goodwin, had to attain permission to give him the information. Also, they seem very vague on the nature of the source code to him as well.

This movie does get awkward, and it’s deliberate. The show him interacting with passengers in ways they wouldn’t expect from a mild-mannered history teacher, particularly this grabs the attention of Christina Warren, his girlfriend I think. Well, she certainly is by the ending but I’ll get to that later. His repeated failures and the awkwardness of them mostly stems from my original problem with the movie.

The climax, where the awkwardness is more-or-less ditched and they start to close in on the bomber (who surprise, is no-one we’ve ever met before) is the most interesting part of the movie and where things shine, including what follows after the bomber is caught. Stevens wants one more try to save everyone, even if it is just a... whatever it’s supposed to be, and then be allowed to die since he was purportedly killed in action and is barely alive. The director of the programme wants to wipe his memory thinking he could be the only compatible candidate with the programme.

Slight problem here though. The compatibility of the candidate was based on the looks and brainwaves of the people on board the train. So surely for different scenarios, the compatibility criteria would be different anyway. It’s highly unlikely Sean Fentress would be a first-hand witness to another terrorist attack so what would the harm be in letting him die?

Anyway, the curious and unrealistically positive ending suggests that when he prevented the bomb going off (in a brilliantly badass way) he created a whole new reality. That’s an interesting way to go but I think a better ending would be to have the half-dead body smile before fading slowly to black as he passes away. Just my thoughts

The movie is decently acted, directed and certainly in the top 3 movies I’ve reviewed this month, but certain problems hold it back from being great.

Rating 65/100