The other movie I saw this weekend was Source Code, the new multi-hyphenate (sci-fi-action-adventure) film starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, and Vera Farmiga. It's directed by Duncan Jones, the man who called the shots on another high-concept (but lower budget) sci-fi film, Moon. (By the way, that's a movie I've decided I was a bit too hard on in my original review.)This story is built around the conceit that it's possible to build a detailed simulation of the people and events of the last 8 minutes of a person's life. Further, that you can send someone into that simulation to extract information as though you'd actually been there -- as many times as it takes to get what you're looking for.
Naturally, any story built around such a premise will inherently run the risk of repetition. And here's where Source Code scores a significant success. Although you see versions of the same events play out multiple times, the material manages to stay fresh. It's a testament to a well-thought out script and careful staging by the director.
Where I became slightly less enthusiastic about the movie is in the final act. It's not that it got "bad" -- it didn't. But the movie is essentially crafted as a mystery, a whodunnit with a technological twist. And you actually get the answer to that whodunnit with nearly half an hour still remaining. Rather than roll credits after answering the major dramatic question, the story segues over into more spiritual territory. What is reality? Can the protagonist have formed real relationships with the simulations he's been interacting with? Is the simulation a real world unto itself?
I do feel like those are viable questions worth building a story around, but I'm just not sure they fit seemlessly into this story. I feel that perhaps the writer always wanted to make these points, but was perhaps forced to dial back on his loftier ambitions in favor of a more marketable action movie. In other words, I feel like the movie reaches for a payoff that isn't quite set up.
Still, the ride is a lot of fun along the way. And the movie is far more thoughtful and thought-provoking that typical action movie fare. I'd rate Source Code a B.
2 comments:
How would you compare this to Inception, which was touted as another thinking man's action movie?
I found Inception to be a movie that *thought* it was really clever and profound, when in fact it was just an action movie that was a bit more clever than its brethren.
Is Source Code more of the same?
FKL
I liked Inception a little better overall. But I agree with you that Inception wasn't nearly as profound as most people were making it out to be. By contrast, I'd say that Source Code presents as a straight-up action movie with sci-fi trappings, but tries to be deeper than that with some of the ideas that manifest at the end.
Inception in reverse, if you will.
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