Source Code Review: Trailer Injustice

Somewhere along the way, the marketing department for the movie Source Code had to have watched the movie. It’s practically a requirement to at least have some passing familiarity with the subject in order to build an audience for that subject. So with that in mind, I cannot for the life of me figure out how the trailer for Source Code was constructed from the movie that I watched on DVD recently.

Had you seen the trailer for the Jack Gyllenhaal/Michelle Monaghan movie Source Code, you would think the movie was nothing more than a predictable, trite romance with a science-fiction twist. Maybe you even thought there was a bit of action to break up the squishy bits where Jake and Michelle make googoo eyes over each other across a train that is doomed to explode, killing everyone on-board. Sci-fi fans like myself would have likely (and did) ignored the movie. If you ignored the movie like I did, you would have missed a really good movie.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s character wakes in a train outside of Chicago, confused. The beautiful girl speaking to him from the seat across seems to know him as a teacher who she often speaks to on the morning commute, but she is a stranger to him. Convinced he is a chopper pilot who should be flying sorties over Afghanistan, he struggles for eight minutes to get his bearing until the train explodes, killing everyone on board. He wakes again, this time is a darkened space capsule, being spoken to by a mysterious Air Force controller named Goodwin, who knows him as that chopper pilot. It seems he has been involved in some sort of project called the Source Code, which allows him to replay the last eight minutes of one of the passengers of that ill-fated train. Goodwin and the enigmatic Dr. Rutledge (played with perfection by Jeffrey Wright), creator of the Source Code, tell him that the train was real, and it was the target of a terrorist bombing early that morning. The bomber plans another attack on the city of Chicago, likely with a dirty bomb, and Gyllenhaal must keep returning to those eight minutes of past time to find the identity of the bomber so that his future attack can be foiled.

Along the way, there are twists and turns and I won’t give away the big twist or the ending, though astute viewers can probably guess most of the surprises before they are revealed. Besides the misleading and unfortunate trailer, one other thing sticks out to me about this movie. Jake Gyllenhaal really can act. He brings a weighty humanity to the character while still being able to bring the action hero chops when necessary. While the rest of the cast does well, especially Wright as mentioned above, the focus of the movie is on Gyllenhaal and he handles it well. Though the ending is a bit telegraphed, when you finally do reach it, the conclusion is satisfying as much because of the audience’s empathy with his character as anything.

I would give Source Code a hearty four (4) stars if I were so inclined. If you like intelligent science-fiction with a dash of romance and action, it’s a great way to spend 93 minutes.

September 18, 2011 at 4:23 pm | Movies & TV | No comment

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