SOURCE CODE (Duncan Jones)

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SOURCE CODE, like what many critics are saying is a Sci-Fi version of GROUNDHOG DAY. The opening sequence is intriguing, gets a bit slow as it goes on, and then redeems itself somewhere before the third act, as the plot twist is revealed, and the subliminal humanity surfaces.

Basically, the use of repitition and alternate versions as plot device, existing since Akira Kurosawa's RASHOMON, has been repeated and reinvented over and over, but only few managed to do it effectively, like VANTAGE POINT, and most especially INCEPTION.  Here, director Duncan Jones, from a script by Ben Ripley manages to make the storytelling exciting by making the story predictable on purpose, then throws the viewer all of a sudden off course. Gyllenhaal is hero material here, and Michelle Monaghan is lovely as ever, though not necessarily given enough space to explore her character. Vera Farmiga is prim and proper, and is the story's actual hero, while Jeffrey Wright is in full character, as the head of the source code program, sporting the Christian Bale Batman voice in THE DARK KNIGHT.

SOURCE CODE, while a decent Sci-Fi movie, suffers from its preposterous premise where you get traces of AVATAR (the blue people, not the airbender) and THE MATRIX (doesn't all SciFi films borrow at least one idea from THE MATRIX?). Nevertheless the overwhelming morality debate presented in the second act is commendable, where Vera Farmiga's character is put into a difficult position.

RATING: 3/5



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