The Jacket Review
by Susan Granger (ssg722 AT aol DOT com)March 4th, 2005
Susan Granger's review of "The Jacket" (Warner Independent/Mandalay Pictures) From the theatrical Coming Attractions, I assumed this was a gothic horror picture. It is. But it has a time-traveling metaphysical twist that's both exciting and thought-provoking.
Gaunt Adrien Brody, who won an Oscar for "The Pianist," stars as Jack Starks, a Marine who was 27 years old when he was shot in the head by an Arab kid during the Gulf War back in 1992. Pronounced dead, Starks was rushed to a hospital when a medic saw him blink. Then, still shell-shocked, he was sent home to Vermont with retrograde amnesia. Which explains why he can't remember much when a policeman is killed by the driver (Brad Renfro) of a car in which he'd hitched a ride. As a result, he's sent Apine Grove Psychiatric Hospital for the criminally insane.
Medicated into a stupor, Starks is routinely tormented, tortured and traumatized by a sadistic psychiatrist (Kris Kristofferson) who confines him in a straight-jacket, straps him to a metal slab and stuffs him into a morgue drawer for hours at a time. This cruel, claustrophobic "behavior modification" technique not only spurs him to recall a drugged-out mother (Kelly Lynch) and her young daughter whom he helped when their car broke down but also, mysteriously, catapults him ahead to 2007, when the now-grown daughter (Keira Knightley) is working in a roadside diner.
Avante-garde British director John Maybury ("Love Is the Devil") cleverly constructs the harrowing visuality of Massy Tadjedin's Kafka-esque screenplay, based on a story by Tom Bleeker and Marc Rocco that inevitably evokes memories of "12 Monkeys." On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Jacket" is a mesmerizing, mind-bending 8. It's a deeply unsettling, chillingly surreal psychological thriller.
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