The Jacket
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Movie Reviews of The Jacket
Movie Review: Surprised the hell out of me!
Summary: 4 Stars
I admit it, I thought this movie was just going to be about some guy who gets tortured in an asylum. Well, he is cruelly treated, but that is not the main point of the story or the most important part. The best part is this man's ability to time travel once the crazy doctor has him medicated, put in a straight jacket, and stuffed in a drawer. The changes he makes in many people's lives, because of what he finds out in the future, is amazing and powerful. It was so touching that I couldn't hold back the tears. I don't want to give away the good stuff this man does for a few families, but I will say that he sees the doctor in the future, the one who is putting him in the drawer. The doctor is coming out of church and, during their conversation, the veteran finds that the old man is obviously tortured by what he did to his patients. When he comes out of the drawer he tells the doctor how him and the other patients he tortured will haunt him in later years. Haunt him. Can you imagine?
I really loved this movie and am even thinking about buying it or renting it out again. It really sticks with you and makes you think a lot. I think it was very well written and produced.
Movie Review: Movies don't often move me, but The Jacket did
Summary: 5 Stars
The storyline is familiar: a man gets a a pseudo-second-chance to help a little girl's life and get closure. By familiar I mean we've seen this plotline employed by the likes of films such as the holiday perennial It's A Wonderful Life and the lesser known Fluke (about a father who gets reincarnated as a dog). By pseudo-second-chance I mean there is some fortean influence at work that allows these men to help their families while simultaneously getting closure on their own lives via paranormal phenomena.
Okay, so yeah, maybe likening The Jacket to It's A Wonderful Life has turned you off to ever renting it or watching it on HBO. But it's not It's A Wonderful Life. It's a much more beautiful, relevant and poignant film. It calls to question the blurry lines between past, present and future as well as the tenuous grasp we have upon what constitutes as reality and justice.
I haven't seen Adrien Brody in many films, but I do know he has won an Academy Award, and after seeing this film, I suddenly understand why. He portrays Jack Starks, a Gulf War veteran who suffers from a nebulous mental ailment (perhaps Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) after being shot in the head by an Iraqi child being held prisoner. I'm not one for war movies that feature bleeding-heart portrayals of veterans, but this movie, I think both avoids over-sentimentality, but also heartily embraces it. It's a strange contradiction, but it works beautifully. I haven't felt so connected to a cinematic character since... I don't know... Edward northing Narrator in Fight Club? And that was for entirely the wrong reasons. I was more intrigued with where the film would end up than I was in the growth and underpinnings of the Narrator. But Adrien Brody invites me into Jack Sparks. He's foreboding and perhaps unreliable, due to his mental health status and amnesiac tendencies, but even so, I became soulfully invested in what happens to Jack.
But even so, the way Adrien Brody is so engaging almost could be dwarfed by the sheer beauty and desolation of the wintry landscape. This movie is gorgeous and real and raw. The cinematographer, Peter Deming, did a superb job here, considering this is the same guy who did Evil Dead II, Purple People Eater, Drop Dead Fred, Son In Law and Joe's Apartment. But I realize that maybe those films paid the rent. Because the man also did Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, as well as Goldmember, so he's a man after my own heart, obviously. But he's also worked on From Hell (and even though Heather Graham is atrociously bad as an Irish prostitute--who'da thunk it?--the Deming's dark beauty and Johnny Depp redeem the film), Mullholland Dr., and I Heart Huckabees. So the dude's obviously got some street cred.
I realize that the success of a film's acting and cinematography perhaps ultimately lie upon the shoulders of its director. JohnMayburyJohnMayburyJohnMayburyJohnMaybury... I have never heard of this name before: John Maybury. Does he sound familiar to you? Well, I dare you to look at his filmography and tell me that you have heard of Pagan Idolatry or Circus Logic I-IV. However obscure Maybury's past work may be, it doesn't diminish the fact that he executed The Jacket with a poetic precision. Because it's not just the dialog you have to pay attention to, it's everything in the frame. The words, the sounds, the edits... They work together in this magical way. I hope we get more from this guy. I really do
Movie Review: Surprisingly good
Summary: 4 Stars
Despite it's somewhat flawed visual style, the Jacket is for the most part a surprisingly good atmospheric thriller in the vein of Jacob's Ladder. Adrien Brody stars as mentally scarred Gulf War veteran Jack Starks, who finds himself being experimented on by a mysterious doctor (Kris Kristofferson) who binds him in a strait jacket and locks him up. During his time inside, Jack realizes he's traveling back and forth through time, and while he's doing this he has a chance encounter with a self-destructive, chain smoking waitress (Keira Knightley) and tries to figure out just how it is he will die. The film goes along more smoothly than the summary you've just read, with Brody and Knightley in particular giving memorable turns. The rest of the cast, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brad Renfro, Kelly Lynch, and new James Bond Daniel Craig, are solid as well. All in all, the Jacket doesn't have the smarts that it aspires to be, but for the most part, you won't do much better in terms of mainstream mind bending cinema.Movie Review: Entertaining Enough. 55 out of 100.
Summary: 4 Stars
I found The Jacket to be very entertaining, and worth watching a second time. The acting and casting were very good. If you haven't seen The Jacket, give it a viewing.
Total Score (out of 100) = 55
27 (out of 50). Enjoyment. A rating based on my overall enjoyment of the film.
7 (out of 10). Acting. How good was the acting?
6 (out of 10). Immersion. Did the movie suck me into the story?
8 (out of 10). Intangibles. Special effects. Movie pace. Is the movie forgettable, or something you will talk about and remember for weeks? Years?
6 (out of 10). Must see. Is this movie worth seeing/renting?
1 (out of 10). Must buy. Is this movie a must buy/purchase?
Movie Review: We have all the time in the world
Summary: 4 Stars
What's the difference between 1993 and 2007? I don't know, they look exactly the same. If only there could have been a way to distinguish the two eras visually, because as the movie stands now, you wind up not even caring if he's still alive in 1993 or travelling to 2007. All they did was have little Jackie a child in one era, and a fetching young woman in another.
I don't know, to me it was a little creepy that Adrien Brody meets the little girl when she's, what, 8? And instantly he's touching her like crazy. Her mother, Kelly Lynch, notices this, and screams like a shrew at him. She's unsympathetic, but she's right on target. In subsequent scenes it's clear he can't take his hands off little Jackie. And then to have her grow up and fall in love with Jack all over again, what's with that? I expected him to say, "I've been waiting for this since you were eight" when they fall into bed together (yuck, and he reveals his nasty little skinny emaciated rib body, i guess she didm't look south of his nose).
However, THE JACKET made you think and that's a plus. I just wonder if the screenwriters bit off more than they could chew. The mystery of how Adrien Brody was able to cure the little autistic boy never did get solved, it continues to mystify on a mobius strip of time. "How did you know?" "You told me--in the future." "You were the one to tell me--in 1993." And what about that mysterious head trauma? Once Adrien Brody realizes he's going to die of a head trauma in 4 days, he ransacks heaven and earth, past and present, to find out who dealt the blow. Once you see it happen, you're like, "That's it?"
On the plus side, Daniel Craig is out of this world and looks, in the madhouse scenes, just like the middle-aged Jack Kerouac. Mackenzie Phillips is great. Kelly Lynch looks super, they should have added her to the cast of BASIC INSTINCT II.
What about Brad Renfro, poor thing? Was he supposed to be in the movie longer? Maybe in the original script Brody would track him down and find out what really happened in the car with that cop. But maybe working with Renfro wasn't as much fun as the filmmakers thought it would be.
It was great having Daniel Craig, the new James Bond, in such a prominent supporting role, and then, as the credits play, you hear David Arnold's treatment of one of the great Bond theme songs, "We Have All The Time in the World," as sung by Iggy Pop! Coincidence? Or time travel?