Source Code

2 Paws
Seen recently at Aksarben Cinema

Note to all writers, directors and producers currently involved in script negotiations: people love a good character. He or she doesn't have to be heroic good - evil also works (think Severus Snape or Martin Burney in "Sleeping with the Enemy") - just someone you care enough about to find out how things end up for them.

Jake Gyllenhaal's Colter Stevens is one of those characters. I loved him the minute he showed up on the train, dazed and confused and full of questions that didn't seem to have any answers. So is Christina Warren, Colter's modern-day Mary Tyler Moore-ish traveling companion who eventually becomes the object of his self-imposed "mission."

I can't say I loved the plot, a ghoulish remix of the "Groundhog Day" premise, a stomach-turning military experiment and any number of "we must stop the terrorist before he strikes again" flicks. Sandwiched in between all the billows of smoke, though, are some great moments, scenes filled with a simple humanity that made me downright weepy.

I never really did figure out what the source code was. I was too busy worrying about how far our real military would go in meeting a stated objective.

Bonus Bones: 0
I guess dogs aren't allowed on commuter trains in Chicago.