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Honestly, I was hoping that the son of an artist I much admire, David Bowie (nee David Jones…) would convincingly establish his artistic DNA…and with “Source Code,” Jones most definitely does. His first feature, “Moon,” was impressive, but there are plenty of one hit wonders out there.  But Jones is his father’s son and not a one-hit wonder; a director of great insights, ideas and creativity and the artist behind one heck of a sci-fi thriller.

This complicated story (aren’t all sci-fi stories complicated?) starts with a very confused decorated soldier, Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), who cannot remember what he is doing on a Chicago commuter train. Worst still, he cannot recognize the man in the mirror. But Captain Colter is a pretty smart cookie, and within his first roundtrip voyage in “time reassignment,” he has come to figure out the drill: he’s part of a mission to find the bomber of the train he is riding on. Each time, he only has 8 minutes to figure out where the bomb is and who the bomber is before the blows up with train. The only glitch is that he is not traveling as himself but as some dweeby teacher named Seth. (Nobody said that your second life would be perfect…)

This drill is part of an experiment called the “Source Code,” a program that enables him to cross over into another man’s identity in the last eight minutes of his life.  And although its explained to him that everyone on board is doomed, there is real hope that if he finds the bomber, he may be able to stop the second attack, which is expected to blow the entire city of Chicago off the face of the earth. 

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Since time is of the essence, Colter keeps being sent back again and again to identify the bomber and save Chicago. However, Colter is kind of unhappy with this mission as it is  being handled by Air Force Captain Goodwin (an excellent Vera Farmiga) who is not answering his very specific questions. After each of his 8-minute missions (and there are several, but thanks to Jones’ taut eye, “Source Code” feels more like “Inception” and never like “Vantage Point”) he gets closer to success. Of special interest to Colter, is trying to save the life of the beautiful and caring woman seated in front of him, Christina (the much under appreciated Michelle Monaghan). He is also in a rush to speak to his father.

If all this sounds confusing its because it is. But much like the Chinese like to say “seeing is believing,” and once you see it all take place in front of your eyes, you will come to appreciate “Source Code” as the exciting, intelligent, thoughtful and surprisingly moving action thriller that it is. 

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Gyllenhaal is this generation’s George Clooney and a leading man in every sense of the word: tall, handsome, smart and confident. He holds the movie together in more ways than one. Farmiga does some of her best work, even if she spends practically all her scenes talking directly to the camera (that is, if we discount the here and there interaction with her boss, an hysterically amusing Jeffrey Wright).   

Under the creative finesse of Jones, you will not only enjoy this wild ride, but you may even find yourself philosophizing about what may most important to you if you knew you only had 8 minutes to live.   “Source Code” is a sci-fi thriller with a big big heart, which seeks to entertain while giving you something to thing about…imagine that!!?!   

MPAA rating: PG-13 Directed by Duncan Jones; written by Ben Ripley. Running Time: 93 short minutes