Blast. I said a week ago I'd write "definitely" write something about Source Code if I saw it, and here I am a week later having written nothing. Poor effort. I've got two to write about now.
Source Code
I've seen some people throwing around the idea that Source Code is this years Inception, seeing as it's a "smart" sci-fi film, or whatever. I'd call it a cross between Inception, Groundhog Day, and some spy mystery film (I can't think of a good film as an example of that genre). The basic premises of this film is that there has been a terrorist attack against a train in Chicago, and there a fears of further attacks. The powers that be in America have developed a program that allows someone to connect with the brain patterns of one of the passengers for the last eight minutes of his life, and effectively live as him and experience everything on the train in an attempt to discover who the bomber is. The subject is able to live the same 8 minutes over and over again until the truth is discovered, hence the Groundhog Day element An army helicopter pilot named Colter Stevens, played by Jake Gyellenhaal, is the subject of this exercise, and takes of the body of deceased teacher Sean Fentress.
The audience are slowly drip fed new information regarding this whole operation, and needless to say there are loads of plot twist and red herrings, and to go much further into the plot would be to spoil it. It's fair to say that this film moves at a million miles an hour, and the edge of your seat suspense hardly lets up for a moment. But what is also so good about this movie is watching the character of Colter develop as he comes to grips with his situation, interacts with passenger Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan), and deals with the regrets of the state he left his relationship with his father in before he left to serve his country.
As the thrill die down toward the end of the film, the tone shifts from action suspense to pathos quite brilliantly, and starts to reflect on the nature of life and death. However, without giving anything away, just when the film feels like it has the perfect ending, it goes for another five minutes and ends.... well... I have to say that the ending really annoyed me, and I've had to drop off half a star because of it.I can't really fault the film up to this point, and I thought this was overall a great film. I just don't know why they insisted on such an insipid ending.
**** out of *****
Water for Elephants
Hmmmm. Mixed feelings about this one. It's about Robert Pattinson's character, who runs away from home and joins the circus (yah rly) after his parents die in car crash, and he falls in love with Reece Witherspoon's character. Except she's married to Christoph Waltz's nutbag character. And yeah, there's an elephant.
On the one hand it's a very technically competent attempt at making an old fashioned style film, and reminds me of modern films such as Forrest Gump, The Green Mile, Big Fish and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. On the other hand while the imagination and characters in those films almost lept off the screen, this one just seems to plod along in a fairly safe and methodical, and lacks that special something to really hook you in. The characters for the most part aren't overly interesting, and the relationship between Pattinson and Witherspoons' characters just doesn't make you care. Whether this is due to a lack of chemistry or something else entirely I'm not sure.
The main driving point of the film actually seems to be the relationship between the central cast and the elephant, and that component does raise the film above mediocrity. Also, Christoph Waltz give a pretty great performance. I'd say this one fits nicely into the "Wait for DVD" category.
*** out of *****
Next review to come will be the rental "Winters Bone." See ya later.
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