The Jacket
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Movie Reviews of The Jacket
Movie Review: Well-acted, well-written thriller
Summary: 4 Stars
Jack (Adrien Brody) is a Gulf war veteran, who while on tour of duty, is shot in the head by a young Arab boy. The head wound should have been fatal but he miraculously survives, after 12 months of convalescence, he is discharged, however experiences bouts of amnesia. Now we see him walking along a cold snowy road somewhere in the northeastern United States, stopping to help a mother and daughter experiencing car trouble. The woman is obviously a drunk, vomiting in the ditch beside the road while Jack attempts to fix their truck. The little girl, Jackie, and Jack make a connection, and she asks him if she can have his dog tags, which he gives her. He fixes the truck, the woman shouting obscenities and drunkenly drives away. Later, a man who seems to be normal, gives Jack a lift, when they're pulled over by the police. Something happens, the police officer is shot dead, Jack cannot remember what occurred, and he is later convicted of murder. He is judged to be criminally insane and sent to an institution. It is here that the film begins to get very strange.
We now see Jack in his cell, given medication on a continual basis, and as time moves on, he seems to becoming more and more docile, when in the middle of the night, he is violently whisked away and taken to the basement, where he is injected with a drug, strapped in a tortuous-looking jacket to keep him from moving, and put in a morgue locker- draw designed for corpses, and left there screaming bloody murder. Anyone with the slightest bit of claustrophobia, would feel discomfort watching this scene. While trapped in the morgue locker, he begins to experience severe hallucinations, that are simply too real. Three hours later the attendants open the locker and return him to his cell.
We discover that the head doctor, (Kris Kristofferson) is performing drastic experimental therapy on Jack, in an attempt to cure him of his criminally violent behaviour. The doctor is obviously a quack, other doctors have an idea what he is doing,(Jennifer Jason Leigh) but turn a blind eye. Through the course of this therapy, Jack's "hallucinations" reveal that he has travelled into the future and discovers the exact day of his death. Is he hallucinating from the therapy or has he actually travelled in time? The "flash forwards" are just too real, as he meets a grown-up Jacky, (Keira Knightley) and finds his dog tags in her house. It is at this stage that he behaves radically in the institution in order to continue the therapy because he wants to return to the future and find the answers to the mystery.
This type of film can either be a complete failure or can be done in such a way that the filmmakers pull it off - the filmmakers, in this case, pulled it off, because it is a riveting film, well acted and well-written, keeping the audience enthralled from start to finish.
Adrien Brody gives a believable performance, he is a subtle actor, bringing to the character the right amount of pathos without over doing it. In fact all of the performances are above average making the film credible and worthwhile viewing.
Movie Review: Well worth viewing: a little treat with some intellectual content
Summary: 4 Stars
Another superb performance by Adrien Brody, and even Ms. Pirates of the Caribbean is not bad, although I wish she'd get her fingers away from her mouth!
The psychological and philosophical themes are just well enough indicated that some rather easy-to-locate plot weaknesses won't bother until much later [and usually, only if someone points them out]. But a willing suspension of disbelief will take you far here.
Maybury has explored will, responsibility, and what the knowledge of our own mortality does to us. And he has come up with a film that is visually rich and emotionally engaging. He has gotten some excellent performances from his varied crew of actors.
Not a film easy to categorize, which is the only way I can account for the fact that it seems to have gone straight to DVD.
I look forward to more from Maybury.
Movie Review: Outstanding Film!
Summary: 5 Stars
The preview trailers for THE JACKET made the film look like another Hollywood horror movie (heavy on movie stars and bloated budgets... but very weak on any actual "horror") so I stayed away from this one when it was in theaters.
Then I saw this DVD... and I was absolutely blown away. I'm a big horror movie fan, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that THE JACKET is not really a horror film. Instead, it is a very intelligently-written, extremely well-acted, and beautifully photographed love story with an intriguing sci-fi edge.
Adrian Brody (who starred in one of the best films of the past ten years, THE PIANIST) stars with Keira Knightley (who starred in one of the worst movies of the past ten years, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN) and their on-screen chemistry forms the backbone of THE JACKET. Brody, again, proves he is one of the best actors working today. Knightly proves she is a much better actress than PIRATES would lead you to believe. Not to mention she is absolutely gorgeous. Kris Kristofferson is also a highlight of THE JACKET's cast, creating an incredibly real and dynamic character who walks a thin line between good guy and bad guy.
Director John Maybury has been jabbed at for being heavy-handed and over-indulgent with his "style" in THE JACKET... but c'mon, people... this is a MOVIE. Last time I checked, movies were a VISUAL medium. If you don't want creative, stylistic visuals, read a book or go see a play. In my opinion, Maybury's often criticized visual style gave much atmosphere to THE JACKET, creating a captivating environment for the viewer to be drawn into. I enjoy movies that are far more stylized than THE JACKET (like BEGOTTEN, NATURAL BORN KILLERS, AMELIE, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, Coppola's DRACULA, etc.) so, by comparison, THE JACKET didn't seem all that over-the-top visually to me. But I thought Maybury's visual style was one of the strongest aspects of the film.
Producers Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney wanted to give an art film director a proper Hollywood budget and THE JACKET was the result. A poor marketing effort kept many from seeing this film in theaters, and perhaps the American filmgoers - bloated from a steady unhealthy diet of typical Hollywood big-budget garbage - just couldn't get into a movie with a unique artistic flair. In the end, THE JACKET was a financial failure. It is unlikely that such a substantial budget will be put behind such an artistic film again anytime soon. So pick up THE JACKET on DVD and enjoy. The movie is a rare example of what Hollywood SHOULD be making.
Movie Review: Gaping Plot Holes? [SPOILER ALERT]
Summary: 2 Stars
I totally agree with the last reviewer who questioned how the nurse in the future could have told him about how to help the kid, if he was the one to tell her past self how to help the kid, based on what her future self had told him. Doesn't make sense? It didn't in the movie, either.
My main issue comes with the head trauma. He received this head trauma after visiting Jackie and delivering his letter to her mother. This would mean that the bad future Jackie that he met would never have existed because he died in the process of helping her. The good future would have been her future all along.
Whatever.
Movie Review: Stylized mess
Summary: 1 Stars
Style over substance. Filled with cliches and jarring imagery, the movie drags on through Jack Starks' time travelling adventure. Like many reviewers pointed out, Jack's wartime past apparently has no connection to the story except for the amnesia causing injury (May be it made him subconcisuly cynical, your guess is as good as mine). How a morgue drawer helps Jack timetravel to the future, I have no clue... Another absurdity is how Jack learns about that Babak kid from Jennifer Leigh (of the future) and repeats to the Jennifer Leigh (in the present). Excuse me, but where is this knowledge oriniating from? Even B movies on sci-fi channel handle time traveling condundrums better. Do yourself a favour and take a pass. This is not worth it.