The movie portion of the annual South By Southwest festival opens Friday in Austin, Tex., with “Source Code,” a sci-fi thriller from Duncan Jones, the director of “Moon.”
SXSW, which also includes music and tech fests in the proudly weird Texas capital, has become an important showcase for cutting-edge entertainment. “Source Code” is an apt movie for that ethos. Director Jones, the son of rock icon David Bowie, made the sleeper hit “Moon” for a pittance, and “Source Code” is a giant leap forward.
“Source Code”is a time-shifting thriller about an American soldier (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) on a mission to stop a terrorist bombing on a Chicago train. The soldier is strapped inside a contraption in the Middle East, but his handler (Vera Farmiga) is able to send him into the future–and into the body of a Chicago commuter–for eight minutes at a time. During each visit, he gathers new information about the plotters–and falls more deeply in love with the commuter’s girlfriend (Michelle Monaghan).
Like “The Adjustment Bureau” and “Inception,” “Source Code” is a mind-bender for multitaskers. It opens locally on April 1.
