Source Code

This week I’d like to talk about ‘Source Code’, a science fiction film released over the Easter break directed by Duncan Jones, who had previously worked on the film ‘Moon’. Though I gave ‘Moon’ a scathing review my main problem was with the screenplay. That film had a brilliant atmosphere for which Jones was in a large part responsible, so I had great hopes ‘Source Code’.

The film focuses on Captain Colter Stephens who, after the helicopter he was piloting crashes during a mission in Afghanistan, finds himself forced to participate in a secret military program called Source Code. He is made to repeatedly relieve the last eight minutes in the life of a train passenger so he can discover the identity of the man who planted the bomb that destroyed the train and who is now threatening to attack Chicago. At the same time Stephens, who has no memories of what happened after his crash, tries to figure out why he was recruited for Source Code.

This is certainly an interesting premise and initially it is handled very well. Unfortunately it is not long before problems with the film’s pacing appear. The secret of the Source Code becomes quite obvious early on and indeed is explicitly revealed about halfway through, removing one of the main driving forces of story. The identity of the bomber itself is revealed some ten minutes before the end of the film, after which we get an unnecessary and somewhat tedious coda. Some critics have compared ‘Source Code’ favourably to ‘Inception’. While there are obvious similarities between the two, ‘Inception’ is clearly the superior film. It keeps raising the stakes and never loses the feel of an epic. In ‘Source Code’ though the stakes initially appear to be much higher, the whole of Chicago is threatened with destruction, the film’s atmosphere doesn’t succeed in conveying the appropriate feeling of importance and we seem to lose some tension almost every other scene. ‘Source Code’ also doesn’t explore its premise to the same depth as ‘Inception’ did: even with its poor pacing it feels terribly short.

I also wasn’t very happy about some of the characterisation. Captain Stephens shows a strange reluctance to participate in the Source Code program, even when told of the lives in danger. His confusion at suddenly being thrust into the program is understandable but I would have thought that a highly professional soldier would put aside any personal concerns until the mission was over. It’s also strange that the director of the Source Code program, Dr. Rutledge, is set up as somewhat of an antagonist because Stephens’ welfare isn’t his first concern. Again, however, with so many lives at stake those who oppose him later on in the film seem a bit shortsighted.

This certainly wasn’t a bad movie and there were several good scenes. It just could have been a lot better and it seems to have been overrated in the press.