THE SOURCE CODE

Written by Ben Ripley

Directed by Duncan Jones

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright

Colter Stevens: It's the same train but it's different.

The dreamy Jake Gyllenhaal is doing a little dreaming of his own, his head resting against the glass as he rides a commuter train into Chicago, one seemingly random morning. This is the onset of THE SOURCE CODE and when he wakes up, it is pretty clear to everyone around him that something is just not right. Just like his fellow commuters though, Gyllenhaal has no idea what exactly it is that isn’t right. You can tell from the look on his face that he feels like he has been on this train before. It isn’t until he looks in a mirror that he questions whether he is even on the train at all. And it all just blows up after that.

Gyllenhaal is Captain Colter Stevens, an American soldier who is an integral part of an experimental and classified army mission meant to prevent terrorist attacks. The trouble is that Captain Stevens doesn’t seem to have any recollection of his being assigned to this mission; the last thing he remembers is flying in an air strike unit. His problems are only magnified when he realizes that the man he is on the train isn’t even him. Stevens, as it is explained to him, and subsequently us, at frustrating length, is part of the source code when he is on the train. What is the source code, you ask? Well, the source code is eight minutes of recereated or alternate time in which Stevens is transported into another commuter’s body in an effort to find the man who has planted a bomb on the train. This not only makes the source code experimental; it also makes it pretty far fetched.

The train has already blown up in reality. There is nothing that can be done to stop it from happening. The man who blows it up though has bigger designs for the city of Chicago itself and this can still be prevented if only Colter could focus on the task at hand. He cannot focus at first though because he cannot get his footing. It is as if he has had no formal training for this mission and his contacts at the base (Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright) are oddly cold and uncooperative whenever he inquires about anything outside his mission. The purpose is later explained but the blatant attempt to disorient the viewer comes off as more manipulative than revealing. Colter does get the hang of things eventually though and then it all becomes about the puzzle, with every object in plain sight becoming a potential clue. Numerous erratic shakedowns ensue.

Director, Duncan Jones, created a quiet and contemplative work of science fiction with his debut, MOON, and has naturally graduated to the big(ger) leagues with THE SOURCE CODE. While he is efficient with his extra funds, the larger cast and more convoluted story are too much for him to grasp all at once. With a repeated loop of eight minutes and a train that blows up every time those eight minutes elapse, Jones has a very specific frame to work within but there isn’t enough growth between loops to keep people engaged. The other passengers, including Michelle Monaghan, might as well be cardboard cutouts for how much they bring to the experience and they look even more lost than Gyllenhaal did at the start. In the end, the code itself is just too complicated - it requires constant explanation, the effect of which only serves to highlight how ludicrous it is.

Eagle Eye

“Eagle Eye” is the stupidest film of the year, which is saying a lot. It’s contrived, ridiculous and headache-inducing from beginning to end. How do screenplays like this get approved? Have Hollywood’s standards sunk this low?

One gaping plot hole is so huge it thwarts the entire premise of the film. It’s possible I missed something, as I’ll admit to tuning out and thinking about what else I should have been doing instead of watching “Eagle Eye.”

Eagle Eye is a massive government-controlled machine that can manipulate every electronic, telephone, satellite, traffic light, etc. transmission in the country. This is one big machine. I’m still not sure if it’s under the auspices of the Department of Defense, the CIA, or the Air Force. (I may have missed the explanation, as it was likely buried under a continuous stream of lightning fast cutting and a pounding music cue. As anyone who’s seen an action movie in the last couple of years knows, even quiet scenes have to be filmed like Armageddon is occurring.)

Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf), a worker at a copy store and Rachel (Michelle Monaghan), a mother, are thrown together and commanded to follow a continuous stream of orders that come to them from TV screens, telephone calls, phone calls from passersby, etc. Jerry is framed and suspected by the FBI of being a terrorist and the life of Rachel’s son is threatened if she doesn’t cooperate. Ordered by an unseen voice on their cell phones, they travel cross-country to play their parts in the conspiracy.

For the life of me, I still can’t figure out why these two had to be involved. I must have missed something. Apparently there are sinister forces behind Eagle Eye who are doing the manipulating. Rachel is ordered to wear a piece of jewelry that would trigger an event during a concert her son is playing at during a Congressional session. Really, wouldn’t it have been simpler to send her a plane ticket and a pass to the concert? There could have been a note asking her to wear the jewelry for this special occasion. Wouldn’t the sinister cabal think this much more effective than creating a plot that causes entire city blocks to blow up and untold millions in property damage?

What Jerry is doing I have no idea. His twin brother, an intelligence agent, was killed and that has something to do with it, but I still can’t understand why he was essential to the plot. I truly don’t get it. Maybe someone can explain it to me.

Director D.J. Caruso choreographs (I hesitate to use the word direct) all this excess with great glee. Apparently the only thought that went into this movie was staging enormous scenes of CGI destruction. It also looks like lots of innocent lives were lost amid all the explosions and car crashes. We don’t see all these lives lost (that would interfere with our good time), and as long as the audience is having a blast with all this chaos, then that’s all that matters, isn’t it? It’s just more of the video game culture that is causing all these stupid action movies.

Poor Shia. Thrust into the leading man limelight too soon, I think. He’s angry and petulant throughout the whole thing. A more unlikable protagonist I haven’t seen in many a moon. He sports a growth of beard which is supposed to make him look grown up, but instead he looks like a baby-faced teenager playing at being an adult.

(By coincidence, he starred in the stupidest movie of 2007, “Transformers.” I can’t wait to see if he can go three for three in 2009. I hope not.)

Thank God Billy Bob Thornton is on hand as the FBI agent. One of our best actors, Thornton is a welcome presence whenever he’s on screen. He recently announced plans to stop acting, or at least slow down, and I’m sure scripts like “Eagle Eye” are the reason. I don’t blame him for accepting the role – even actors like to eat – but he must know what a colossal piece of junk he’s in and it’s likely retirement fantasies kicked in during filming.

Brian Tyler’s score is heavy on the synths and drum machines. It sounds exactly like every other action score composed over the last 10 years. Sometimes it drowns out the actor’s dialogue scenes, which aren’t helped by often being delivered in throaty whispers by LaBeouf and Monaghan. And they say movies from the Golden Age are over scored?

In an effort to find something worthwhile, I did enjoy the production design of the Eagle Eye. There is also a very nicely staged sequence set amidst electrical towers in the Indiana hinterlands. And the popcorn was good.

Rating for “Eagle Eye”: One star.