'Source Code' leaves audiences disappointed, confused

Anybody who knows me can tell you that I am a bit of a sci-fi nerd – especially when it comes to movies and television. I'm also a bit of a fan of Jake Gyllenhaal, even sticking with him through the "Brokeback years." So, when I heard that Jake would be in his first big sci-fi flick since the atrocity of "The Day After Tomorrow," I was more than just a little aroused at the thought.

"Source Code" centers on an army pilot named Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) who wakes up on a train and finds himself living out the last eight minutes of a total stranger's life. After an explosion completely destroys the train, Stevens wakes up yet again to discover that he is part of an experimental program called the source code, with the sole mission of identifying the train bomber and preventing a second attack. All of this is explained to him by a woman named Colleen Goodwin (played by Vera Farmiga) who sort of acts as his "handler" in the program.

There are some funny moments in the first couple of trips into the source code; for instance, when Stevens, thinking he is in a test simulation, looks to the heavens and asks Goodwin for guidance at points when he doesn't know exactly what he should do. It's also a bit funny because he runs through the train attacking anyone who he sees as a potential threat and causing mischief - kind of like a player in a video game.

The man whose life Stevens is experiencing the final moments of is a teacher named Sean Fentress. At the time of his death, Fentress is traveling with a colleague named Christina (Michelle Monaghan) who we find out later has been patiently waiting for Fentress to ask her out. After developing a bit of a crush on Christina he rescues her from the train in pursuit of a suspect. As she is not on the train when it blows up, her "survival" brings about the big question of how the source code differs from the idea of time travel.

I think one of the biggest misconceptions that most people will have is that this is a movie about time travel. However, it is quite clearly explained by the inventor of the source code, Dr. Rutledge (played by Jeffrey Wright) that the source code is more like "time reassignment" than it is time traveling. According to Rutledge, this means that any changes Stevens makes while in the source code will only affect the alternate reality of the source code, having no bearing on the reality outside of the alternative world.

Another stupid thing that most people won't fully analyze is the fact that any romance between Gyllenhaal and Monaghan it purely fabricated. In reality, when Sean and Christina died on the train they weren't even dating, or romantically involved in any way. So when Fentress is actually Stevens, and he and Christina "fall in love," it's even more unbelievable.

In the end, this movie commits what I consider to be one of the biggest faux pas that an action-thriller film can make: when the chips are down and there is absolutely NO way that things can end well…they do. This movie has one of the cheesiest, happiest endings I've seen despite the fact that the protagonist's love interest isn't even alive anymore.

In essence, I think it's the repetition of the same events over and over – coupled with the alternate reality inside the source code – that makes this movie seem like the deformed offspring of "Groundhog Day" and "Inception." So if you like those films, I highly recommend that you stay the hell away from this movie.

2 out of 5