The Jacket Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)March 4th, 2005
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When I hear a film will, in any way, shape or form, deal with time traveling, there's usually a severe rolling of the eyes, followed by an audible grunt or two. There have been brilliant films in the genre, like Primer, but some of the worst films in history (Black Knight) have hurtled their protagonist(s) through time, too. Everything else, however, falls into the giant, pointless chasm between the two.
In terms of following the rule above, The Jacket doesn't disappoint. I enjoyed it more than, say, The Butterfly Effect because the talent behind and in front of the camera were able to make The Jacket a much richer cinematic experience (and, possibly more importantly, Ashton Kutcher wasn't in it). I imagine some folks will brush off the story as sci-fi nonsense, but I also believe those viewers who submerge themselves in the film's narrative will have a much better chance at enjoying what I found to be an unexpectedly moving picture.
Adrien Brody (The Village) stars as Jack Starks, a veteran of Gulf War I who, thanks to a serious head wound suffered in battle, has a pretty jumbled memory when he returns to his New England home. When Jack finds himself on trial for killing a cop, he can't come up with an alibi and is sent to a decrepit mental facility called Alpine Grove in the waning days of 1992. Part of Jack's "therapy" involves being dragged down to the basement, pumped full of drugs, bound in the titular straightjacket, and stuffed in a morgue drawer for hours and hours. Why? Because crazy Dr. Becker (Kris Kristofferson, Blade: Trinity) says, "You can't break something that's already been broken."
It's difficult to say what exactly happens when Jack is "in the jacket" because doing so will give away too much of the film's story. You already know Keira Knightley (King Arthur) is a co-star, so odds are, Jack will run into her at some point. And when he does, she'll be hiding behind scraggily black hair, liberally applied mascara, and a husky American accent, outwardly channeling Angelina Jolie, Helena Bonham-Carter, and a less humorous version of Zooey Deschanel's store clerk from The Good Girl (and, yes - she gets naked, so stop emailing me to ask). Her character's relationship with Jack initially seems weird and forced, but it totally pays off at the end.
As you would expect, The Jacket is a very visual ride, with David Lynch's photographer Peter Deming aiding director John Maybury's first big league film effort, especially in showing Jack's fragmented memory flickering around his brain as reflections off of his crazy eyes. Brian Eno contributes a warm, repetitive score, and the surprisingly deep cast (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Daniel Craig, Brad Renfro) features both an unrecognizable Mackenzie Phillips, and the singer from Marillion. And there aren't too many movie that can make that claim. Even stranger, the list of producers stretches from Clooney and Soderbergh, to basketball maniac Mark Cuban, to the kid who played Tommy on Alice.
1:42 - R for violence, language and brief sexuality/nudity
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