Source Code is a difficult one to pitch. It could be viewed as a thriller or something a bit more cerebral, a mystery. It could legitimately be all of those things and that’s fine - if it didn’t feel like it didn’t know what it wanted to be.
Directed by Duncan Jones, David Bowie’s son, a ticking clock is never far away in this film yet in its troubled third act, it almost forgets it is there and thus forgets when to end. Would it have been better to end 5 minutes before it actually did? Probably as it would have given something more to talk about but it was concerned it was too cerebral and tied up more loose ends than it needed to.
The concept is good because it’s not what you think it is right off the bat and as it pulls you in, you genuinely want to know the outcome. It is a shame then that the last 20 minutes or so undoes all this hard work.
See this if you like something a little more comforting to the brain food but don’t expect it to be as clever as it thinks it is.