Source Code

Duncan Jones’s second feature (his first was 2009's Moon) is the kind of high-concept sci-fi mind-bender that many will praise as a philosophical and existential thrill ride, but I consider it nothing more than an ineffective gimmick movie.  Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a guy who must relive the final eight minutes of an unknown man’s life again and again in an attempt to solve a mystery aboard a high-speed train.  That is a cool sounding premise, something like Groundhog Day meets Speed.  Jones sets and keeps a brisk pace and Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan (girl sitting across from him on the train) are such an enjoyable screen pairing that many will forgive the movie for its major gaps in logic and silly peripheral characters. I, however, am one of those stick-in-the-muds who require that my sci-fi films define their internal logic and then obey it, and this film ignores far too many of its holes to be credible.  I wonder if anyone could write a film from this high concept that would actually work logically and structurally, or would it always turn down too many blind alleys?  The Adjustment Bureau, released at about the same time this year, is a much less slick but far superior work of science fiction.