Source Code

Review

Seeing everything early and refusing to watch any coming attractions, I often go into a movie with no idea of its premise, sometimes not even its genre. That’s a good way to approach Source Code, which for half its (brief) length is thrillingly disorienting. I’ll try not to orient you here, except to say it’s largely set on a Chicago commuter train and kind of like a Philip K. Dick rewrite of Groundhog Day, with each time loop (if it is a time loop�mum’s the word) offering the equally disoriented hero (Jake Gyllenhaal) another chance to correct for past mistakes and accumulate more data. Directed by Duncan Jones (Moon) from Ben Ripley’s screenplay, it’s a crackerjack ride, shot and edited for maximum discombobulation. Those who inexplicably convinced themselves that Matt Damon and Emily Blunt had romantic chemistry in The Adjustment �Bureau should check out true heat, courtesy of Gyllenhaal’s unblinking baby blues and Michelle Monaghan’s irrepressible glow. Dick would love the paranoid setup and probably hate the cheat of a denouement. But it all goes by too irresistibly fast to call a time-out for disbelief. — David Edelstein