Source Code

I like the fact that Duncan Jones sells utter banalities as little unobtrusive indie pieces, where many (rightly!) shout the words of the savior of intelligent sci-fi, and so on. With Source Code, however, I can't help thinking that if the whole thing had been treated as a quarter-hour short, the result would have been better than this feature film, which harms itself by trying to do too many things at once (time paradoxes, military trauma, the love story). In addition, the protagonist has the option to press the "load" button so many times that you eventually realize that he has to be able to do it once, just like in a PC game when you start from the same checkpoint for the umpteenth time and hope that this time you won't definitively die. 3 ½. (01.09.2011)

Source Code is complex in content but simple in concept, and everything about it works perfectly. Director Duncan Jones seems to have found his groove in sci-fi, and with this film, he’s definitely someone to keep an eye on. Jake Gyllenhaal and Vera Farmiga deliver top-notch performances, and the soundtrack complements the tight, well-executed story, which you could sum up in just a few sentences. Everything clicks, and I had a great time watching it. And the ending? It's classic Hollywood—predictable but satisfying. So what? Every film has its thing, and Source Code deserves attention for how it takes a simple idea and squeezes every drop out of it in just 93 minutes. (11.08.2011)

Source Code is unique particularly due to the fact that it manages to hold the viewer’s attention for a full ninety minutes thanks to an idea for a twenty-page sci-fi story. The film isn’t so long that added genre layers would slow down the brilliant pace and thus give us room to think about the holes in the logic. The smaller scale suits Duncan Jones and I won’t be upset at all if he makes more such little treats instead of major productions. 80% (22.04.2011)

Jake Gyllenhaal is cool, the film has a brisk pace, but my god! In science fiction you can use any crazy idea you want, but it has to stand on sufficiently firm laws, which isn’t the case here. This fictional universe is haphazard from the get go, and let’s not talk about the ending. Taken together, Source Code doesn’t have any climax. The last fifteen minutes could have turned into either an utterly irrelevant and uninteresting filler, or in nonsense, and unfortunately it was the latter. I was really thrilled with Jones’ previous film, Moon, but this is one is just a popcorn movie that squanders a very good premise, which if more refined could have resulted in a sci-fi gem. PS: Before the screening I was almost certain I wouldn’t be disappointed. I’m sorry about the rating. PPS (Spoiler): This film would make a little sense only if I were to accept the hypothesis that the device that works according to clearly explained laws, will work according to completely different laws, and completely differently, and that it will manage generate pure chance, and that by pure chance it will work spontaneously, regardless of the instructions of its creators, who still control it according to the laws they believe it abides to, but actually doesn’t… and I won’t do that :-D (22.04.2011)

Source Code is a little big movie reminiscent of Donnie Darko, Proyas’ Knowing or The Adjustment Bureau, which was released at the same time. It is visually refined, with a playful, well-thought-out script, as well as emotional and witty. It’s great when a spring Hollywood genre movie that doesn’t pretend to be anything more than it is worms its way into your heart more than “big” winter Oscar dramas. That is exactly the case with Source Code. Jake Gyllenhaal is very good here. Ignore the cheap, forced epilogue. I’m sure it was a concession to the producers, who wanted a more uncomplicated happy ending than the real one, the only one possible, inevitably reached through tears. (08.05.2011)