Source Code (2011)
Directed by Duncan Jones
When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.
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What critics say influenced Source Code
What emerges is a film that mixes elements of old fashioned mystery narratives with the concepts from Harold Ramis’s Groundhog Day and Chris Marker’s La jetée, which was more directly the inspiration behind Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys.
Directed by Duncan Jones , writer-director of the 2009 BAFTA award winning Moon, Source Code doesn’t shy away from its spiritual cousin Groundhog Day.
“Source Code” will bring back memories of such unusual inspirations as “Groundhog Day” and “24,” but it mostly feels to this critic like what a classic thriller director like Alfred Hitchcock would have done with an episode of “The Twilight Zone.”
Among Source Code’s many pleasures—which include a swiftly-paced 90-minute runtime, welcome dashes of humor and general Alfred Hitchcock-meets-The Twilight Zone-meets Groundhog Day vibe—is the general refusal by Jones and screenwriter Ben Ripley to engage in any clunky exposition.
In this case, screenwriter Ben Ripley has filched from the best, delivering a taut, mostly well-crafted race against the clock that combines the time-loop conceit of “Groundhog Day” and the postwar paranoia of “The Manchurian Candidate.”
An almost risible collision of the bogus science and cranial confusion from Groundhog Day, Inception and Avatar, it also shares the themes of isolation and alienation found in Moon, director Duncan Jones’ heralded debut.
What emerges is a film that mixes elements of old fashioned mystery narratives with the concepts from Harold Ramis’s Groundhog Day and Chris Marker’s La jetée, which was more directly the inspiration behind Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys.
Sort of like “Groundhog Day’’ meets the old French brain-buster “La Jetée’’ (or its big-studio remake, “12 Monkeys’’).
Code adds those themes to an action-film frame: Working with editor Paul Hirsch (who cut some of Brian De Palma’s finest suspense scenes in films like Obsession and Blow Out, which also addressed doggedly retracing one’s steps), Jones compacts a movie’s worth of fury, frustration and fear into the first five minutes.
Code adds those themes to an action-film frame: Working with editor Paul Hirsch (who cut some of Brian De Palma’s finest suspense scenes in films like Obsession and Blow Out, which also addressed doggedly retracing one’s steps), Jones compacts a movie’s worth of fury, frustration and fear into the first five minutes.
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From the Robert Wise-style opening (obviously inspired by the openings of West Side Story and The Sound of Music) with gorgeous aerial shots of Chicago, Source Code presents a refreshing new idea for time warp movies.
From the Robert Wise-style opening (obviously inspired by the openings of West Side Story and The Sound of Music) with gorgeous aerial shots of Chicago, Source Code presents a refreshing new idea for time warp movies.
Jones wisely avoids the trap of filling a movie with a soundtrack of hipster rock tunes, instead having composer Chris Bacon going for just the right blend of Bernard Hermann to create the tension of Hitchcock's "North by Northwest."More…
Then there is Hitchcock, and particularly North by Northwest and The 39 Steps , with their perplexed heroes caught up in something much larger than themselves.
Following a very North by Northwest credit sequence, Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), a helicopter pilot stationed in Afghanistan, wakes up on a train chugging along through the suburbs outside of Chicago.
By the end of “Source Code” he’s become a different kind of hero, one who has stepped out of time for a moment and gotten a glimpse behind the curtain of existence, à la, I don’t know, Dave Bowman in “2001: A Space Odyssey” or a Zen master or something.
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Jones and his excellent crew, including crackerjack editor Paul Hirsch (whose career has swung wildly from Star Wars to Date Movie , with all kinds of stops in-between), cinematographer Don Burgess, and a phenomenal sound team led by Tom Bellfort, do such an amazing job of keeping the film sizzling along, finding an infinite number of ways to keep the flow between the high-energy scenes on the train and the slow-boil paranoia scenes in the Source Code mission room, that one could almost overlook the human element; certainly it's fairly boilerplate stuff about the power of free will and spirituality and all, but told with a fair degree of conviction, and well-acted, with Monaghan on her best behavior proving to be an outstanding romantic lead for Gyllenhaal; though the movie is rather stolen by Farmiga and Wright in two marvelous supporting performances, hers a subtle masterclass in conflicting emotions, the desire to be a decent, sympathetic person butting against the need to get the job done and be all mili…
Monaghan put in overtime working with editor Paul Hirsch (Star Wars) to ensure that her performance in each Source Code stood out.
Amtrak probably won’t use this movie to promote their service because of what happens at every eight minute mark, but Source Code is one of the most fun rides on public transportation since Speed.
The most evident appeal of Ripleyâ??s Groundhog Day-meets-Speed scenario is the ticking-clock factor and the emotional toll that it takes on Gyllenhaalâ??s character.
The Groundhog Day-meets-Speed structure is both playful and suspenseful, and all of the actors are well cast.