NEW YORK, April 2, (RTRS): Jake Gyllenhaal lobbied for Duncan Jones to direct action thriller “Source Code,” in theaters today up against the PG-13 re-release of “The King’s Speech.”
“He had seen my first film ‘Moon,’ and I very much wanted to work with him, and we met and he said, ‘I got this script, ‘Source Code,’ I think could be a good thing for us to collaborate on,’ Jones told The Hollywood Reporter at a special screening of the film at NYC’s Crosby Street Hotel Thursday.
“So I read it, got very excited, and thought yeah, I could so something with this,” added Jones. “The script just incredibly fast-paced — it literally starts with a bang and goes 100 miles per hour. It’s just really fun.”
A second read made him more excited to get on-board the Summit Entertainment film. “There were all sorts of challenges and puzzles and I kind of like solving puzzles, so it was kind of fun for me to work out how to achieve all these difficult things that were set up in the script by Ben Ripley,” he said.
Working with Gyllenhaal (who plays a soldier who wakes up in the body of an unknown man and realizes he’s on a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train), Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright was “amazing” too, he said.
“In particular with Jake and Michelle, they have a great chemistry and they’re also a lot of fun, so it was amazing for me. They’re both also very brave actors,” said Jones.
Especially Gyllenhaal, who injured his shoulder jumping off a train for a stunt.
Awesome
“It’s a weird sort of thing when you watch a stunt back on film and it works and it looks really awesome,” Gyllenhaal told THR. “There’s a moment where you say, ‘Wow, that looked pretty good.
Maybe I’ll try and do something again. And if you enjoy the thrill of it, you want to do it again.
“I was scared maybe at first, but you get over that,” he continued.
Monaghan called Gyllenhaal “such a pro. From a professional standpoint, he cares so much about the integrity of the script and the story. He puts his best foot forward every single day.”
“And on a personal note, I had so much fun. He’s super nice, he’s fun, he’s charming, and he doesn’t take anything too seriously and that’s like ace in my book,” she added. “I promise all the girls out there: He’s a dream.”
“Source Code” has received mostly favorable reviews. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 88 percent of critics have given the film a positive review based on 160 reviews, with an average score of 7.4/10.
The critical consenus is: “Finding the human story amidst the action, director Duncan Jones and charming Jake Gyllenhaal craft a smart, satisfying sci-fi thriller.”
Metacritic has awarded the film an average score 74/100 based on 38 reviews.
Critics have compared “Source Code” with the film “Groundhog Day” (1993). Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film “Confounding, exhilarating, challenging — and the best movie I’ve seen so far in 2011.”
Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, calling it “an ingenious thriller” in “where you forgive the preposterous because it takes you to the perplexing.”
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called Ben Ripley’s script “cleverly constructed” and a film “crisply directed by Duncan Jones”, while also praising the “cast with the determination and ability to really sell its story.”