From Donnie Darko to Source Code

At last watched Source Code on tv last night - have sort of been meaning to watch it since it came out in 2011, though couldn't quite work out if I'd like it. After all, the plot sort of goes nowhere, a blacker version of Groundhog Day where the main character - played by Jake Gyllenhaal - relives several times the final eight minutes of a passenger on a bombed train. He seems most horrified when he looks in the mirror and doesn't recognise himself - the reflection isn't that of any famous actor in fact! Still, it's not any where near as scary as that mirror reflection of the mysterious silver grey rabbit in Donnie Darko(2001).
Donnie Darko was the first film I saw Gyllenhaal in, which I enjoyed though never totally fathomed the story out. Like Source Code it can give you qualms about travelling at speed - no-one would want to catch a train straight after watching the more recent film, but in the older film a jet engine crashes in Donnie's bedroom. Frank, the mysterious rabbit, tells him the world is to end in 28days, 6hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds, so at least Gyllenhaal has more time to play with there, though it's odd that both films end with him reliving the action to save the girl.

 Donnie Darko was filmed over the course of 28 days and missed breaking even, grossing only $4.1 million worldwide, though it has since amassed a large cult following. Source Code grossed  $147 million, with highly positive reviews, a lot of spectacular special effects and plenty of pixellation. It's directed by Duncan Jones (once Zowie Bowie, son of Major Tom himself), who had previously directed Moon, where the main characters turn out to be clones, no reliving of events there, just face to face encounters of the different versions of your personality. I enjoyed Moon, and it seems the critics agreed- it won the BAFTA award for an Outstanding Debut by a British Director, Writer or Producer.  After seeing Moon, Gyllenhaal had lobbied for Jones to be the director of Source Code.

But at the end of the day I definitely prefer Donnie Darko; apart from the fact it's one of the few films I've seen at the cinema twice, I will no doubt watch it again some time, whereas it's unlikely I'll view Source Code again.So no reliving of events planned there.

And what of Richard Kelly, who hasn't managed to repeat the success, albeit limited, of Donnie Darko. It seems his film, Corpus Christi, about the friendship of an unstable Iraq war vet and his wealthy  supermarket boss, has been shelved due to lack of funding, and he is working on a real life story for Amicus, about a record producer planning to kill his family. No happy endings as yet then.