Source Code

I’ve had this page open most of the day trying to think of a way into this review of Source Code, a passable thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal which came out earlier this year.

That’s really it. I think the failure of this movie lies in its inability to make much of an impression on the audience. It’s pretty clear that the filmmakers were hoping to inspire conversations about the film and its ending, a la Inception. I’m taking the fact that not a single person has ever talked to me about the film or even asked me if I’d seen it as evidence that they failed in this mission. In my case specifically they failed because I couldn’t care less for the types of conversations this movie hoped to provoke. It’s all, what if there were infinite universes, what defines consciousness, etc, etc. BORRRRING!

The movie itself is not boring, really. But I was far more interested in the process of catching the bomber than I was in any space-time paradoxes that the film pursued. I also had little interest in the contrived, uninteresting love story between Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan’s character.

This movie just tried too hard to be too many different things. It wanted to be an action movie for philosophy majors and physicists, with explosions and romance thrown in to catch a mass audience. It didn’t feel like a true success in any of these genres, though I hesitate to call it a failure in any of them, either.

Well, how’s that for a ringing endorsement? And it only took me most of a workday to get around to it.