thomas4cinema

Interesting question is why people are so enthused about this movie: because its director has shown two years ago that he can pull of a solaris-silent-running-like fusion of arthouse and science fiction, so that you can expect a brainy and slow reflection piece – in the case of Source Code on the issue of time travel? Or because the film’s premise and plot promise yet another fusion: between action thriller and a bit of brain, but with a focus on the entertainment and the optical values. A family of films fathered by Inception, in other words. Depending on where you come from, Source Code will disappoint a bit more or less. It is not slow and reflective, not by any means, but it does have the courage to stay with the inner torment our hero feels when being trapped in a situation that provides him with no exit. It is not too brainy or twisted, actually quite simple in comparison with what you could expect with all those repeated layers of reality they keep producing with each time jump, but you get compensated with pretty images and pleasant explosions. The brain and the bombs never fit together too well, however, at least not from where I was watching. I did enjoy the film, but in a distanced fashion, wondering for instance how they would manage to keep the tension even during repetition 5 or 8 of the loop our world saving soldier is stuck in. I kept thinking back to “Run, Lola, Run”, which had the same problem, and also did not really master it. I kept thinking about alternative approaches to the adventure-video-game-like challenge that is at the centre of the film, and while I figured out some ways, I also kept thinking that a film that provides its hero with an infinite number of possibilities to try again after the mission has failed is in the same danger of being frustrating as a video game is where you could save the situation just before that dangerous jump and start over if you fall down and die. After 20 times, maybe you do not want to try it one more time. I was wondering why I had all that time to think about all these things, and then the film was over, and I thought yet another thing: that you could have resolved the whole thing in a slightly more thrilling way. There is a final to the terror plot, but it has to step back against the final of the human story, so at the end of the day any season of “24” has more satisfying closure. Still: a good night out at the movies, and I watched the most ridiculous of all trailers, ever: The Priest…

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/source_code/