Chicago-set sci-fi thriller 'Code' explodes with tension

I had no idea where I was, who the characters were, and what was supposed to happen.

It was wonderful, blissful confusion. A mystery. An enigma.

I managed to see “Source Code” knowing nothing about it, beyond its cast and director, Duncan Jones, whose first movie was the impressive, low-budget drama “Moon.”

The Chicago-set “Source Code” turns out to be the sort of challenging, irresistible science-fiction thriller that works best if you allow yourself to get swept up in its outrageous premise and not be too concerned about its head-scratching details that beg for explanation, or its never-ending ending.

I instantly empathized with Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), who feels the same sense of confusion.

The last thing he remembers is being in a helicopter in Afghanistan. Next thing he knows, he wakes up on a Chicago-bound commuter train across from a young woman he's never met. Her name is Christina (former Columbia College journalism student Michelle Monaghan), and she seems to know him. She calls him Sean.

Stevens doesn't understand what's going on or why he's on a train. He really freaks out when he glimpses himself in the mirror, and he's some other man he doesn't know.Then, he and the Chicago commuter blow up in a fiery explosion planted by a supposed terrorist.

The rest of #8220;Source Code#8221; devotes itself to peeling back the layers of this mystery. So, if you're a purist who'd like to preserve the surprises in #8220;Source Code,#8221; stop reading here.

Meanwhile, Stevens wakes up in a dank holding tank filled with monitors. On one, Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) asks Stevens if he has located the bomb.

She and her boss, Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), piece together the plot for Stevens, who has been given the last eight minutes of Sean-the-commuter's memories before he was killed by the bomb earlier that day. (It's called #8220;parabolic calculus,#8221; and even Rutledge doesn't want to take time to explain it.)

Rutledge suspects the bomber will detonate a deadly dirty bomb in Chicago within six hours, so discovering his/her identity is crucial to the Windy City's safety.

Stevens must relive Sean's last eight minutes over and over until he can find the bomb, and more important, identify the bomber.

The most obvious comparison to #8220;Source Code#8221; would be Harold Ramis' masterwork #8220;Groundhog Day,#8221; the shot-in-Woodstock comedy about Bill Murray's weatherman forced to relive the same day over and over until he gets his life priorities straight.

Gyllenhaal's military man has a clock running on his quest for knowledge, adding an extra dimension of tension in Ben Ripley's trippy and imaginative screenplay.

Yet, even those willing to suspend all disbelief may be baffled by Stevens' wacky idea that he can save Christina and the other commuters, who are already dead before the story begins.

#8220;Source Code#8221; may not be a great work of science fiction, but it's a delicious popcorn picture given extra flavor by Gyllenhaal's earnest approach to Stevens, a responsible soldier who desperately wants to contact his dad to let him know he's OK.

So, why can't he? Hmmm.

Wright excels at acting a character instead of becoming one.

Nonetheless, his clinical performance fits Rutledge, a morality-strapped cog in the military-academic machinery.

Farmiga has the toughest character to crack, a military woman capable of empathizing with Stevens to the point she will risk her career for him, something mandated more by the script than the situation.

It's a stretch, but a small one inside the stretchiest motion picture in recent memory.

Besides, a film that vaguely hints that Chicago might be heaven can't be all bad.

<b>"Source Code</b>

<b>Three stars</b>

<b>Starring:</b> Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga, Michelle Monaghan, Jeffrey Wright

<b>Directed by:</b> Duncan Jones

<b>Other:</b> A Summit Entertainment release. Rated PG-13 for language, violence. 93 minutes