Source Code

Recent second picture of Duncan Jones ('Moon').
We really, within its bounds, rather liked this film. The style is of course not of much interest; note how tracks, with a shaky camera, seem to have completely dismissed pans. It flies about, reversing, tight on faces. There is not a lot of room for space creation in the very organised sets, the few moments of abstraction are rather an add on.
This film suceeds when it has its slightly twinkle-in-the-eye, off beat moments. There is a nice element of 'Que sera, sera' to this film, a complete sense of fate. This, combined with the identity problems and the trains, marks a certain Hitchcockian reference point for the confused male.
Yet Jones does have his own themes; the human who's not a 'real' human, the outside forces completely beyond control that yet determine what he has to be. Jones has a deep distrust of technology, the blind force of it, showing it breaking down. And yet, again and again, it is technology that provides the almost literal lifeline for moments of human contact.
The broken down technology and the sense of fighting against evil, blind, imperialist forces that manipulate, one is not even a human in this, are the strong points. And then there is the slight glint of utopia; impossible, of course, but there you are. One must try. This system is of course ruined by the ending, and our reading is a little forced; but it is easier to do so than in others.
Yes, the style isn't hugely interesting, and it is ideological nonsense writ large. Yet, there are enough running themes to at least give a human sense, and it is entertaining when it gets its lightest, in its interest as our hero twirls around the train carriage. For what it is, very good.