Source Code (DVD/Blu-Ray) - Dir. Duncan Jones. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga.
A decent modern day sci-fi thriller from the director of Moon.
Military pilot Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up in the body of someone else on a doomed passenger train. It turns out he needs to keep reliving the last eight minutes of this man's life until he solves the mystery behind the train's destruction.
In a strange departure from the hard sci-fi of Moon, the device that makes all of this possible (the "Source Code" of the title) works by a combination of magic, gibberish, and wishful thinking.
Suspension of disbelief and most other higher brain functions is required for the plot to make any sense.
The movie is a bit smug about its own cleverness: a forgivable trait in films that really are pretty clever like Memento, but not so much in this case. While Source Code's premise is an attention-grabber, it really only amounts to the unholy spawn of one of those "It's Groundhog Day meets Inception!" pitch sessions. The film maintains interest with a few more twists and mysteries that come up along the way, but these are no more original.
Still, the repeating-time concept is enticing no matter how many times we see it, and the filmmakers in this case fit in enough exploration and variation on the theme to make Source Code worth another kick at the bucket.
Rated PG-13 for angering geeks who know what source code actually is.
3 out of 5
Trust (DVD/Blu-Ray) - Dir. David Schwimmer. Starring Liana Liberato, Clive Owen, Catherine Keener.
Fourteen-year-old suburban American girl Annie (Liana Liberato) is targeted and abused by a sexual predator she meets online. She and her family (Clive Owen as the father, Catherine Keener as the mother) are then left to deal with the aftermath: Annie's denial and her father's helpless rage.
Liberato's performance is exceptional, and the guy who played Ross from Friends turns out to be a pretty capable director.
The movie is noteworthy for its unflinching depiction of the most awful and uncomfortable subject matter known to society. But the question must be asked: at what point does frank drama become trashy fear mongering? To me, Trust seems to engage in a nearly 50/50 split between the two.
Like a sensationalized television newsmagazine special, the opening act revels in every creepy detail of the predator's gradual ensnarement of the girl-up to and including the rape itself-with every classic warning sign short of actual alarm bells kicking up a clamor the whole time. The focus then turns to the event's fallout, which is where the film (largely through Owen and Liberato's performances) finds its purpose.
There is no tidy resolution to be had, which is one of the few positive ways in which the film sets itself apart from dozens of primetime television dramas and Lifetime movies. But while the ending is refreshingly bold one moment, it returns to its "Watch out! He probably lives in your backyard!" tactics the next.
So then why was this movie made, and for whom? Director David Schwimmer probably sees it as a public service, and without a doubt he has some powerful points to make about the definition of rape and its true impact.
My concern is that Trust's main audience will be parents with a compulsion to see their worst fears confirmed, which makes the film's net positive impact on the world a little questionable.
Rated R for let's not even get into it.
3.5 out of 5
