Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) is an army helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. Somehow he ends up being in someone else's body. He is on a train with Christina Warren (Monaghan) and it explodes after a bomb goes off, killing everyone on the train. Stevens then has to relive the final 8 minutes before the bomb went off in hopes of trying to find out who did it, thus thwarting future terrorist attempts of this nature. Colleen Goodwin (Farmiga) explains this all to him multiple times.
The cast was good. I had not seem them in much at all, but the three leads gave good performances. Jake Gyllenhaal is capable of being the lead in a movie, although naturally not as capable as the likes of Matt Damon or Leonardo DiCaprio. Michelle Monaghan wasn't annoying in it, so that was exciting. Finally, I enjoyed Vera Farmiga in "The Departed" and "Up in the Air," but here she just doesn't have very much to do, as most of her scenes are her in a chair talking to Mr. Gyllenhaal on a television screen.
The music and cinematography made the movie for me. The musical score consisting of a lot of string instruments and reminded me of some scores to classic Alfred Hitchcock movies. Throughout "Source Code" the score added to the action, thrills, and other fun things. The movie would have suffered without it and there would not have been much action or thrills. Also, the cinematography was beautiful. There are great shots of Chicago. This includes aerial shots looking directly down at buildings and other generally attractive shots. Also, the camera moved quickly throughout the movie, like with a quick zoom across the water to the train, at the start of each of the recreations of the train explosion.
Given the story line of "Source Code," the plot got a little confusing as it progressed. I guess this is just the nature of the movie since things don't really happen logically.
This wasn't a great movie, but I have seen far worse. The cast is likable and overall the film was pretty entertaining. 2 out of 4 stars.
-Joseph Sbrilli
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