What to Stream: Jake Gyllenhaal's Career-Revitalizing Performance in the Sci-Fi Thriller 'Source Code'
Source Code (2011) Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu
The Basics: A soldier awakens in someone else’s body — and discovers that he’s part of a top-secret, cutting-edge scientific program.
If You Like: The Matrix, The Twilight Zone: The Movie, North by Northwest
More than a few advance reviews of Nightcrawler—out in theaters today—have pointed out how closely Jake Gyllenhaal’s crime videographer resembles an L.A.-after-dark version of Robert De Niro’s Taxi Driver cabbie, Travis Bickle. To see the actor channeling a less disturbed (but disturbing) screen icon, check out Duncan Jones’s crackerjack 2011 sci-fi thriller, which casts Gyllenhaal as a Hitchcockian everyman hero in the vein of North by Northwest's accidental spy played by Cary Grant. The film's initial set-up recalls another Hitchcock favorite, Strangers on a Train, with Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) being jolted awake on a commuter railway car and encountering the lovely stranger Christina (Michelle Monaghan), who appears to know him. Or, at least, knows the person he used to be.
It’s here that Source Code takes a sharp, enjoyable detour into Rod Serling territory as Colter soon discovers the improbable reality behind his situation; not only is he re-living somebody else’s life, he’s re-living the moment of their death. Going into any further detail would spoil the twists and turns that first-time screenwriter Ben Ripley have cleverly folded into the narrative — a crime tantamount to giving away the ending to Strangers on a Train. Besides helping Jones avoid the dreaded sophomore slump after his well-received directorial debut Moon, Source Code is also the film that launched the post-Prince of Persia Gyllenhaal career revival that’s continued with End of Watch, Prisoners, Enemy and, now, Nightcrawler. He’s the calm, collected center that holds this runaway train of a thriller together.
Photos: Jonathan Wenk/Summit Entertainment
