"Source Code" Fast and Honest Fun

"Source Code" is an effective, cleanly made action thriller.  The film is perfect for a rainy Saturday afternoon, or an evening with friends wishing for a concentrated dose of good old movie excitement. It's the kind of entertainment Hollywood does better than anyone else: a good mix of attractive screen actors playing their roles perfectly, a quick pace, an original concept with a script that handles the exposition efficiently, and strong direction (by Duncan Jones) with professional support by all craftsmen and crew. 


After a few days, the plot holes may fade into the mind's view, but "Source Code" is such a nice mix of adrenaline and heart that the good will lingers. 

It has been described as "Inception" meets "Groundhog Day".  That doesn't begin to tell how enjoyable this is.


(This review has been phrased to avoid spoilers...)


When you look at a bright image for a while, and then close your eyes suddenly, the image is fixed in your sight for a few seconds.  According to the premise of "Source Code", a similar phenomenon occurs in the brain after you die.  The final eight-minute swath of memory can be preserved, harnessed and planted into the brain of a living person.  All of this is explained by quantum physics, and string theory, and other all-purpose, catch-all concepts that describe the paranormal.  

Jake Gyllenhaal is Colter Stevens, whose brain activity is used for a mysterious military mission to prevent a terrorist bombing aboard a Chicago commuter train.  Michelle Monaghan is Christina, a passenger who knows Gyllenhaal's "host" character and is unaware of Colter's mission. 


The film proceeds in eight-minute increments, with each segment revealing more information.  As the audience learns more, the suspense increases.  After the first segment or two in which we are groping in the dark, we become accomplices in Coulter's mission, and the movie becomes great fun.  By the final twenty minutes we're breathlessly identifying the correct suspect and hoping his horrible deed can be halted. 

At mission control is Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), whose objective becomes complicated by her response to Coulter as a human being and not just a scientific object.  Farmiga is wonderful, modulating her reactions in an original and thoroughly convincing way. Her one word response to Colter's direct question about his condition, and her little catch afterward, is terrific.


Jeffrey Wright is a wee bit too sinister as the commander, Dr. Rutledge.  This caricature may not be entirely Wright's fault; is seems that his role was shortened in the editing room, so we get only the barest hint of his military service, and why he uses a cane. 

As an actor, Gyllenhaal possesses large, soulful eyes that I would describe as sympathetic.  He uses them to connect emotionally with his fellow actors, and the viewer. We can't help but root for him, and be moved by a nice subplot in which Coulter wants to make amends with his grieving father. 

Monaghan has a nice chemistry with him on the screen, as she begins to doubt her easy knowledge of this passenger with whom she wants to build a relationship.  I would say that both actors are doing their best work here; especially Gyllenhaal, who has developed a maturity and nice command of his presence in front of the camera.


Seeing this in a crowded theater in Arizona was a fun 90 minutes for this native Chicagoan; Chicago looks wonderful on-screen, and the recreated train sets were authentic-looking (even if the routes used in the film were stitched together for dramatic flow). 

During the explosions between each 8-minute segment, Chicagoans will recognize snippets of the Bean in Millenium Park, which is used to great effect at the film's conclusion.  (Click here for a previous original post about the Bean).  At one point, when an imminent terrorist attack requires mass evacuation of the city, the overhead shots of the crowded roads look like a typical rush hour on the Stevenson or Kennedy Expressways. 


I might have ended the film a little differently, in which Gyllenhaal's "host" character carries on, and Coulter is allowed his wish.  It would fade out some time right after the freeze-frame; this would seem to make more sense within the film's own tricky logic. 


But I can't begrudge an ending in which love prevails, and it is suggested that the hero will go on to another mission; nor can I be too critical of a film that manages to be exciting while stirring honest emotions,  and gently reminds us to ponder how we might live the final minute of our lives.

Muddled "Love and Other Drugs"

There is a great popular film somewhere that takes a satiric look at the complex issue of health care, how the aggressive and lucrative pharmaceutical industry is holding health care hostage, and how a self-centered industry professional falls in love with a woman whose suffering is at odds with his success.

Unfortunately, "Love and Other Drugs" is not that film.  To be sure, it introduces these elements, but treats them in the most superficial way, leaving a viewer confused about the film's intent, emphasis and tone.

What is this, exactly?  A love story between two troubled characters? An examination of how the medical field is stymied by big pharma? Perhaps a slapstick comedy, complete with lame sex jokes, and a homeless man who takes drug samples from a dumpster, becoming well enough for a job interview? Is this a story of the professional rivalry between two despicable salespeople? Or a look at the frustration of doctors who lose their idealism amid crushing bureaucracy?

I suppose the crux of the story is one disillusioned drug rep's hopeless efforts to help his beloved find a cure for Parkinson's disease.  Or maybe it's a chronicle of the rise of Viagra.  It also played like one big product placement for Pfizer (why?).


It is all of these, and none of these too.  It is a mess.

Jake Gyllenhaal is the handsome yet insecure workaholic who charms his way to the top and gets grounded by the love of a complicated woman who will need him more than he realizes. Anne Hathaway, playing that woman, is so good one believes her even when she is asked to deliver rapid-fire wisecracks.  Gyllenhaal, while always endearing, pushes this role too hard, and mugs for a laugh. But then, the script is as muddled and unsure as any I have seen of late, and the direction by Edward Zwick is similarly confused. 

It's a shame, because one occasionally catches a glimpse of a compelling conflict, some genuine romance, and a skeleton of what seems to have been inspired by the better parts of  topical movies like "Up in the Air".  I loved a scene (filmed in Chicago) in which Parkinson's patients relate their stories to a receptive audience.  I enjoyed the energy and irony in the scenes when Gyllenhaal is trained as a sales rep for Pfizer. But then his conquests and altercations become repetitive and embarrassing.  I also was intrigued by Hathaway's photo project, but then we never know what it is supposed to be, or what the final product is.  Similarly, Hathaway's character works with senior citizens who often take a bus to Canada to purchase cheaper prescriptions. 

But none of the threads goes anywhere...it's frustrating because the film swings wildly from scene to scene, as though someone messed up the screenplay and kept adding one ingredient after another until no one knew how to fix it.

Rather than concentrate on the insecurity of Gyllenhaal's character, as he fights to achieve his drug-sales quotas, we get an unnecessary backstory involving his disapproving family, and a subplot involving his younger brother. The latter is so unnecessary, and so out of line with the better intentions of this film, that it is painful, even offensive, whenever this character appears.  George Segal and the late Jill Clayburgh are wasted in brief appearances as Gyllenhaal's parents (If you miss the first five minutes, you will miss then entirely.)  And Oliver Platt, as Gyllenhaal's mentor and sales partner...well, I gave up trying to understand Pratt's appeal long ago.

Anne Hathaway is believable and touching as the young woman afflicted with incurable Parkinson's.  Her clear, large eyes and tender expressive face keeps one's attention glued to her.  Yet the filmmakers undermine her work.  How I wish the film narrowed its focus to the love story, while using the corruption of the health and pharmaceutical industries as a subtle commentary on the characters' fates.

It has been only five years since Hathaway and Gyllenhaal played a doomed married couple in "Brokeback Mountain".  The memory of that pairing hung heavily over this film, because "Love and Other Drugs" had almost none of the sensitivity of the former.  By re-teaming these two performers (who I like a lot, by the way) in a film that is snickering in its treatment of sex, body image and human anatomy, it was as though an attempt was being made to wipe out the memory of "Brokeback" once and for all.  

For me, a huge disappointment, knowing what this film could have been.