Reviews by Matt

Two posts below this one is a movie that had a cool concept and failed to live up to that concept. Now we have another movie where the concept is what put my butt in the theater more so than the actors or director. This time though, I went in expecting one movie and got a completely different one.

One day Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up to find himself in another man’s body. He is on a train sitting across from Christina (Michelle Monaghan). As he tries to make sense of what is happening, the train blows up. Suddenly he is in what appears to be a capsule. Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) appears on screen and tells him that he is part of a program that is trying to stop a series of terrorist attacks by entering the mind of a man who died in the first attack that morning. Think “Groundhog Day” with terrorists.

The movie was actually pretty good. In this case the concept and the story work well together. The plot was not bogged down with the concept. It is not a love story more than it is a science fiction or crime story. It is well told, well acted and over all a worth a trip to the theater.

If you have not seen the movie, do not read any further because spoilers will follow.

My problem with the movie is the very end. In the end, as expected, Stevens finds the bomber and is able to stop the bomb from going off, therefore thwarting the future attacks. After he stops the bomb, he asks to go back in one more time. He makes it a perfect ending. He and Christina end up kissing and the rest of the train car is happy. The movie freeze frames on that. And that is how it should have ended. Instead, it continues. Colter Stevens has taken over the body of the man and walks off the train with Christina. There are implications that there are now two Colters — one in someone else’s body and one still in the Source Code program. There is a lot that the movie leaves open and that really just bugs me, but not enough to dislike the movie.

8 our of 10
Rated PG-13 for some violence including disturbing images, and for language
93 min