Source Code

Director: Duncan Jones
2011
RT score: 91%
My rating 8/10

With a run time of one hour and twenty-seven minutes, Source Code is a testament to the idea that in film making all you need to do is get in, tell your story and get out. No fluff, no wasted scenes and nothing superfluous.
And that's exactly what Source Code is, a complicated sci-fi thriller that is explained as it's experienced. At the films center is Jake Gyllenhaal, a wounded soldier who has been placed in a machine that allows him to continually relive the same 7 minutes before a bomb blows up a commuter train in Chicago.
One of the things I appreciate most about Source Code is that there isn't an overly complicated explanation of how source code works. It's sci-fi and director Duncan Jones recognizes that if you bought the ticket to see this film than your probably willing to suspend reality for 90 minutes and just accept that this story exists in a world were source code is possible.
Aside form Gyllenhaal, the film also features Vera Farmiga in a sort of pilot role, guiding Gyllenhaal through source code and pressing him to find an answer. And, like all great sci-fi that involved military intelligence and experiments, she is also the films moral compass. She pushes Gyllenhaal initially knowing that it's necessary to save lives and eventually makes the human decision to allow Gyllenhaal to die instead of being the subject of future experiments.
Rounding out the cast is Jeffrey Wright as the doctor who founded source code and Michelle Monaghan as the girl who once dated Tom Brady. Both serve their roles well and in particular Wright is great at not making his character overtly evil, but a character we can empathizes with even when he takes it too far.
Of course as the Gyllenhaal progresses the mystery behind the bombings is solved and then their is the question of what happens if the seven minutes don't end in a bombing? I understand the reason Jones made the decision he did and perhaps one could say it was probably studio pressure to give the film a mega happy ending, but there is a moment where the film clearly could have had a more meaningful ending and the only thing keeping this thriller from being a 10 out of 10 is the fact that they went for the mega happy ending instead. Still, lots of great things going on here and well worth the 90 minutes.