Source Code

There was a recent report on the development of a device that will allow patients with traumatic injury to control prosthetics through thoughts alone. The concept for the movie Source Code is a long leap from this, but it's a small step in what we can possibly expect in the future. Which means that it makes it easier to accept the precepts from Director Duncan Jones who did the amazing Moon and with a script by Ben Ripley. It takes the idea of brain manipulation and time travel to create an interesting action film with a little bit of romance and Ground Hog Day.

A man wakes up from a nap on a train and he's confused as to where he is and who is the woman speaking to him like she knows him? When he looks in the mirror there's a different face staring back, there's a fiery explosion, and suddenly he's in an enclosed metal capsule. A screen with a woman in a uniform is reciting a serious of questions aimed at reseting his memory. Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) keeps asking for the men in his unit and wants them to call his father. The controller on the screen Carol Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) is calming him, reminding him he's on a mission, he must remember what he has seen. They keep sending him back to the same scenario before Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright) the man in charge tells him they are trying to find who set the bomb on the train. It is an event that has already happened. Capt. Stevens is experiencing the last 8 minuets of the life of the person he's inhabiting. He's got 8 minuets each time they reset him to find the bomber before another tragedy occurs. Each time he returns he gets to know Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) his attractive, sweet and slightly confused train mate while investigating each of the passengers for being a possible terrorist. Instead of being a tedious reenactment each time, Colter changes the past and questions if it's possible to change the outcome.

You don't have to understand the science behind what Dr. Rutledge is trying to do. The pace is fast and you will become just as curious as to how the puzzle will play out. Jake who I now forgive for Prince of Persia does a great job as the tenacious soldier trying to complete the mission. He's got great chemistry with Monaghan without wimping out his character. Like the Adjustment Bureau this is not a hard core sci-fi flick, but a good date movie that will entertain and challenge.
(Review by reesa)