Source Code

Donnie Darko, Jake Gyllenhaal, returns to the sci-fantasy world that made him a cult hero with the aforementioned film, and he does so with a bang.  The casting of Jake as Colter Stevens must have been intentional, considering his earlier work also dealt with time-travel.

No matter how many similarities this film has to others that came before it, I want to thank Duncan Jones for bringing us something that is at the same time new.  Somebody please give this guy a blank check and a few years.

Needless to say, I liked this movie and will probably like it even more once I have watched it a second time, but there were the distractions of those similarities that kept this film from being great upon my first viewing of it. While Jake was crawling around inside the "capsule" the most obscure film kept popping to mind, not so much because of similarities in story, but in the simplicity of style in delivering an idea, Stalker by Andrey Tarkovsky.

When at a screenwriting conference a few years ago, I was told repeatedly: If you want to have success, write something that is similar to something that has already had success, but make it different.  This movie is a perfect example of that bit of advice - same but different.

For me the most exciting part of the whole story came after the climax.  We were left to envision a continuation, and I'll tell you what... if they ever need a writer for Source Code 2, brother I have some ideas.

In the end, Source Code is a nice blend of "source" material and clever new twists.  It's worth seeing in the theater, but is not so grand as to not wait for DVD.


Not sure what I'll shell out $30 to see next, maybe Hanna.   

-aap