Rachel's Monday Cinema

Hello Everyone :-)

I know I said this was going to be Rachel’s Sunday Cinema but on Saturday when I said I was going to see ‘Source Code’ my Mum said she wanted to go and then my brother said he wanted to go and then my Dad said he wasn’t fussed but we weren’t leaving him in the house on his own. So yesterday we went to the pictures en famille.

I’ve been looking forward to this film for months, when I found out it was happening I was so excited. I’m a huge fan of Duncan Jones’s directorial debut ‘Moon’ which he co-wrote with Nathan Parker. I can’t tell you how much I love ‘Moon’. It’s simple and streamlined without being dumb, emotive without being sentimental and has the most wonderful aesthetic; it looks like it cost five times what it actually did. So you understand my excitement when I found out about ‘Source Code’.

‘Source Code’ follows Captain Colter Stevens, an army helicopter pilot who wakes up on a train headed for Chicago with no memory of how he got there. His reflection is of a different man and his wallet says his name is Sean Fentress. Sitting across from him is a woman called Christina who knows him as Fentress. Before he can understand what is happening, a bomb goes off and destroys the train.

Stevens then awakens inside a chamber, where he is greeted via a computer screen by Captain Colleen Goodwin, an Air Force officer who tells Stevens that he is inside the Source Code, a program that allows him to take over someone's body in the last eight minutes of their life. Stevens' mission is to locate the bomb on the train, discover who put it there and report back to Goodwin before the bomber can detonate a second bomb in downtown Chicago.

I loved it.

Some say Jake Gyllenhaal was an interesting bit of casting and some have said Sam Rockwell could have done a better job. I think that’s doing a disservice to Gyllenhaal’s performance. I think he was great, some of the scenes of him in the Source Code capsule I found made for uncomfortable viewing, I really felt for him and the relationships that develop between him and Christina and him and Goodwin are really nicely done.

Christina is played by Michelle Monaghan who I’ve only ever seen in one thing before (the utterly predictable ‘Eagle Eye’ with the no where near as attractive as Jake Gyllenhaal, charisma vacuum that is Shia LaBeouf) and she never really made a lasting impression on me in that. However in this she shines. She gives Christina real warmth and gets you on side straight away. It’s a weird role because Christina doesn’t really have a lot to say even though she’s pivotal to the story but I think what Monaghan’s been given she works with really well.

There’s also some good turns from Jeffery Wright (aka Peoples) and Vera Farmiga. I’d never seen Vera Farmiga in anything before but I really liked her in this. A vision of restraint struggling with the morals of the ‘Source Code’.

If you’re looking for scientific accuracy, don’t bother. ‘Source Code’ is terribly vague about the science behind the central idea because quite frankly it’s made up. I don't have an issue with that because there’s nothing wrong with making stuff up. That’s what a great deal of films are right? Making stuff up in order to entertain? I love science but I don’t let that interfere with my enjoyment of the film. In the words of good Doctor Kermode ‘It’s only a Movie’.

Considering every train scene starts in exactly the same way the film never feels like it’s repeating itself and the slow reveal is really nice. It’s nice to see something that gives you little titbits and lets you try and work out what’s going on instead of shoving it down your throat. There are some nice nods to ‘Moon’ and although thematically they’re different, both films create the same kind of atmosphere. Obviously ‘Source Code’ had more money to play with but Jones never over complicates the films visuals. It would be so easy to give this to some one like Michael ‘The Anti-Christ’ Bay who would just go crazy with explosions and miss the heart that Duncan Jones has given the film. It has a lovely balance between telling the story and engaging the audience in the action.

Like I said I loved it. I was also really pleased that my family liked it as they’ve never seen ‘Moon’ and I was a bit worried they wouldn;t be able to get their heads around it. There’s a certain amount of brainpower involved in watching this film but as ‘Inception’ proved that’s not a bad thing. Hopefully this foray into the mainstream will cement Duncan Jones as a great Director and not as 'Son of David Bowie'.

Go and see it and pick up a copy of 'Moon' if you haven't already seen it.

Goodbye till next time :-)

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