Source Code

Rating: 4 Shurikens

The name of the movie doesn't really convey what the movie is about. In the movie, it refers to a secret military project that allows some one's consciousness to enter the time stream sometime in the past. The problem is that it can only happen eight minutes at a time. It is partly dependent on there being a catastrophic event where someone dies. The subject goes into the past and inhabits someone else's body, eight minutes before death.

The premise makes a nice jumping-off point for a time-paradox movie. Jake Gyllenhaal, most recently seen in Prince of Persia, plays Colter Stevens, a helicopter pilot who has been recruited to test the new system. He starts out not having been told what is going on, and soon discovers that the Chicago-bound commuter train he finds himself on is doomed to destruction. He awakens in his own time, to learn what has happened: A commuter train has been blown up by unknown terrorists, and they need him to find out what happened. They send him back again, and he re-experiences the events again. On the train, he finds himself talking to a pretty brunette, Christina Warren, played by Michelle Monaghan. She has been in a few good movies, like Mission Impossible 3 and Eagle Eye.

Colter Stevens is sent to the past, to repeat the same eight minutes, and every time, he dies. But each time, he gets closer to solving the mystery. His contact and handler is the lovely Colleen Goodwin, played by Vera Farmiga, an accomplished actress who has been in a lot of movies I have never seen. Jeffrey Wright is Dr. Rutledge, the inventor and head of the Source Code project. He doesn't turn out to be an overly sympathetic character. The cast is rounded out by Michael Arden, who is cast as Derek Frost, the villain of the story.

The movie explores the classic time paradox, in the model of Star Trek, in a story format similar to Groundhog Day. The story loses a little bit of credibility over the choice of  villains. The elaborate plot to blow up a train as a cover for setting off a dirty bomb seems too much for one man. It is difficult to imagine how one would be able to perform such feats by oneself. There would certainly be plot complications if it had turned out to be a terror cell, so the producers retreated to the politically correct solo crazy white guy as the antagonist. The movie is quite enjoyable in all other respects, but the villain is a definite weak point.

All in all, this movie will be worth seeing in a theater, given the spectacular explosions, even though it comes up against much stronger movies. I give it 4 Shurikens for an entertaining plot line, good acting, and a satisfying resolution.