APRIL 1, 2011
"Groundhog Day" meets college science experiment gone wrong. The hype was unworthy of the final product. The plot had great potential giving the audience 3 distinct settings. The train, the capsule and the science lab. There is never a moment when the settings become blurred. Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhall) awakes to find him self riding the train, but everyone calls him Sean Fentress (Jake Gyllenhall). Actions of all the passengers and crew soon become an important element to the continual cycle of repeating events. Christina (Michelle Monaghan) is the first person Captain Stevens sees when he awakes. She begins speaking as if she has known him forever and these words will be repeated in the next cycle. Before Captain Stevens who now learns he is Fentress can grasp what is happening around him, a bomb blows up the train and the picture fades to black.
Awakening inside a capsule, strapped in a chair and unable to move, captain Colter Stevens begins a dialogue with a video feed of a military woman, colleen goodwin (Vera Farmiga). She explains that he is in a program that will allow him to return to the body of Sean Fentress for eight minutes so the military can determine who is responsible for the bomb and potentially help save lives. The surrounding story within the video feed involves dr. Rutledge (Jeffery Wright) who is the creator of the source code. He ultimately decides the direction of the mission with an underlying motive.
Dr Rutledge quickly sends captain Colter Stevens back to collect for information from the people on the train preceding the explosion. Time after time he returns, building details that sends him through a journey that although repeats allows him to look past non-essential data. With his knowledge growing he begins to piece the puzzle together figuring out who is responsible for the bomb.
Jake Gyllenhall was definitely able to carry this movie as his character appearing almost 90% of the film. His ability to play a character that runs the gammet of emotions will ultimately bring in the audiences, but can it bring in the dollars? 18 new movies were released today, and source code will be among the big money winners, but its longevity is in question.
RUSTY
4/1/11