Source Code (2011)

Our first cinema trip in a couple of months, mainly because there's not been anything that has really drawn me to part with £6+ (half the price of a Blu-ray, or a DVD sale price!) until Source Code, the main draw to which was Jake Gyllenhaal and a 4 star Empire review. Like Groundhog Day, or more accurately like The X-Files episode 'Monday' in which Mulder and Scully live through the same bank/seige explosion scenario until Mulder figures out how to prevent it, Source Code sees Gyllenhaal's Colter Stevens re-living an 8 minute train ride, up to the point a terrorist bomb blows it sky high. 

It's a deceptively simple scenario, rendered much more complicated by the puzzle that Colter must solve - it's a whodunnit - along with the mystery of what's going on back in the 'real world' where he's in some sort of pod being beamed back into the train. Or is he. It's a time twisting mind-fuck that doesn't have the visceral thrills of Unstoppable, but rather it has more depth and is equally as gripping. The casting certainly helps with what could be a repetitive movie, given the nature of the storyline, Gyllenhaal is as likable and believable as a hero as ever, while Vera Farmiga does great work with a computer/desk based role as one of the people putting Colter through the Source Code. 

After leaving the cinema there was much to dissect, particularly about the time travel paradox style ending, that's often a problem in movies with similar themes. I think it'll be worth a second viewing to try to work out how it might resolve, or to spot the plot holes!