Family-Faith Film Review: Source Code

Family-Faith Film Review: Source Code
By Catholic Office of Film and Broadcasting

Source Code: Taut direction by Duncan Jones and game performances all around help disguise the logical conundrums underlying this sci-fi thriller. As part of a cutting-edge antiterrorism operation, a heroic Afghan War veteran (Jake Gyllenhaal) is enabled to inhabit the body of a stranger during the last minutes of the other man’s life when he and his girlfriend (Michelle Monaghan) were passengers on a doomed Chicago commuter train. By repeatedly reliving this brief period, under the initially opaque guidance of the officer (Vera Farmiga) running the program, the vet hopes to identify the plotter who bombed the train and thus forestall a far worse follow-up attack. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the sometimes grim proceedings is offset by an emphasis on the central character’s humanity, while the script’s musings on life, death and parallel existences are too confused either to challenge or reinforce beliefs of any stripe. Recurring action violence, some of it potentially disturbing, brief gory medical images, about a half-dozen uses of profanity, at least one instance of the F-word, some crude language. A-III — adults. (PG-13) 2011


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