Growing up, I was a hug fan of Quantum Leap. Still am, actually. Have the complete series on DVD, and I even met Dr. Sam Beckett himself, Scott Bakula once! So when I heard the premise of Source Code, it seemed slightly familiar.
And things start off very similar. Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), awakens on a train bound for Chicago. He doesn't know who he is, why he's there, who the woman sitting opposite is, and when he looks in the mirror...well to quote the start of Quantum Leap, "a different reflection is staring back at him". Oh boy, indeed. Of course if you never saw, or liked Quantum Leap you will probably enjoy the film even more than I did!
It took me a little while to get my head past the QL thing, but once I had I discovered a decent little film. I always knew it probably would be considering Duncan Jones was directing. His feature length debut, Moon made a big impression with me, and this is coming from someone who doesn't count Sci Fi as one of their favourite genres. And he shows his flexibility here by excelling in the action thriller genre also.
After that initial Quantum Leap deja vu, we find out that Stevens is part of a secret government mission called the 'Source Code', meaning he can jump back in time to an event (in an alternate reality) for 8 minutes at a time, each time. He's on the train because it's about to be blown up, and it's up to him to find the identity of the perpetrator before he makes another attack.
At only 90 minutes, the action moves along at quite a furious pace. It's good that it doesn't let up for the duration, but things do seem a little rushed in places because of it too. A double edged sword.
The performances are good. Gyllenhaal is the right mix of confused and angry, Jeffrey Wright is good value as Rutledge, who created the Source Code program, and Vera Farmiga as Goodwin, the emphatic Air Force captain guiding Stevens through the confusing program.
Michelle Monaghan is the inevitable love interest, but she's never really given too much to do. Not so much her fault, but restraints with time and the situation the character is (unknowingly) in prevent that.
The Quantum Leap geeks like myself are also appeased with a cameo near the end of the film. Hint, you won't see anyone, rather hear them. But it's a moment that caused me to rewind and watch again!
The ending of the film was a bone of contention for a lot of people, but I had no problem with it at all. I can see where people are coming from, but it's the ending I wanted to see, even it seemed slightly tacked on.
Source Code is a great film, albeit slightly flawed, but it almost demands repeated viewings, which I will be doing sooner rather than later.
****
Once I got past the similarities to Quantum Leap, this was a great, if a bit rushed, action thriller. Looking forward to what Duncan Jones does next.
2 comments:
As my own review of this film makes clear, I'm one of the people who HATED the ending - really ruined an otherwise great film by just making NO sense whatsoever. Still gave it 3*s, but I was expecting better.
I expected a darker ending, but I liked the characters, so was cool with it. Did you notice the Quantum Leap joke?
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