Production Companies Mandalay Pictures, Warner Independent Pictures, 2929 Productions (in association with), VIP 2 Medienfonds, VIP 3 Medienfonds, Rising Star (in association with), Section Eight Ltd.
When you put on The Jacket, prepare for a head-trip into fragmented reality. Coproducer Steven Soderbergh might have fared better with this mind-bender than British director John Maybury (who indulges an excess of heavy-handed "style"), but it's intriguing enough to hold your attention as Gulf War veteran Jack Starks (Adrian Brody) sustains a head-wound that results in amnesia and fragmented timelines. One involves Jack's apparent killing of a policeman, after which he's institutionalized and subjected to straight-jacketed experiments in sensory isolation (with Kris Kristofferson as the doctor in charge); the other is a possible future involving a nihilistic waitress (Keira Knightley) with connections to his past, and the discovery that Jack will die in four days if he can't solve the brain-teasing puzzle he's fallen into. The Jacket aspires to the cleverness of Memento and falls short of that target, but Brody gives this exercise in desperate disorientation a certain gravitas that keeps you watching as his tormenting visions begin to unravel. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brad Renfro and Kelly Lynch make the most of their small supporting roles. --Jeff Shannon
(77 votes)
2.
Jack Starks knows little about who he is. Nor does he know why he's bound in a strait-jacket and subjected to bizarre psychiatric treatments. But an even more stunning fate awaits this amnesia-stricken Gulf War veteran: the treatments thrust him into the year 2007 - where Jack learns he died in 1993. Impressive filmmaking talents join forces for The Jacket, a mind- and genre-bender of a psychological thriller produced by Peter Guber, George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh. Academy Award® winner Adrien Brody (The Pianist) plays Starks, the time traveler running out of time. And Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl), Kris Kristofferson and Jennifer Jason Leigh bring addition star wattage to eerie events that reach beyond time, beyond fantasy, beyond life itself.
(73 votes)
3.
Oscar-winner Adrien Brody (THE PIANO) stars in THE JACKET, an intense psychological thriller about a Gulf War veteran who finds himself trapped inside another terrifying scenario. Shot in the head while in Iraq, Jack Starks (Brody) has returned home only to be convicted of a murder that he didn't commit. Still reeling from his wartime trauma, Jack is found not guilty by reason of insanity and is committed to an institution for the criminally insane. Once there, he is drugged by the evil Dr. Becker (Kris Kristofferson) and placed into a coffin-like drawer on a nightly basis. Inside the drawer, after being tormented with horrific war flashbacks, Jack is mysteriously transported to the future, where he forms a tender relationship with the hardened, beautiful Jackie (Keira Knightley). Aware that he is destined to die in four days, Jack must use his new gift to figure out what happened to him, with the hopes of altering the course of history.
Directed by John Maybury (LOVE IS THE DEVIL), THE JACKET features another electrifying performance from Brody. Acclaimed artist Brian Eno contributes a transcendent score, which contrasts beautifully with Peter Deming's stark cinematography. As the weary Jackie, Knightley proves once again that she's more than just a pretty face.
(67 votes)
4.
1991: Jack Starks, a U.S. Marine Sergeant serving in the Persian Gulf War, receives a near-fatal gunshot wound to the head. Although he recovers, the incident leaves him with shock-related amnesia. After his release, with nowhere to go, Starks, who has no relatives, returns to his native Vermont.
Nine months later, hitchhiking along a snowbound Vermont highway, Starks encounters a broken down pick-up truck. The driver, a drunken, disoriented mother named Jean, and her eight-year-old daughter, Jackie, are stranded at the roadside. With Jean too drunk to speak with him, Starks approaches Jackie and offers his help and gets the truck started.
Starks continues hitchhiking, and is picked up by a station wagon driven by a young man headed for the Canadian border. Shortly afterward, the car is pulled over by the police and Starks blacks out. When he awakens, he finds himself on trial for murder in a small town court.
Found not guilty by reason of insanity, Starks is committed to Alpine Grove, a state institution for the criminally insane. There a staff physician, Dr. Becker subjects Starks to a jarring experimental treatment involving mind-altering drugs and claustrophobic physical restraint. Once medicated, Starks is wrapped in jacket-like restraints and left alone for hours at a time in a corpse drawer located in the hospital's basement morgue.
And in the drawer, in the dark and under the influence, Starks initially experiences flickers of memory from the war and the shooting of the police officer. Under this regimen, he begins putting together bits of his past and tries to make sense of his circumstances.
The past gives way to the future when he is suddenly transported to a diner in Vermont where he meets Jackie, a waitress who takes pity on him and tries to help him find a place to sleep for the night. It is Christmas Eve, and all of the local homeless shelters are full, so Jackie allows Starks to sleep on her couch. In these hours, Starks begins to realize that the drawer he’s been confined to is the secret to his recovery and that his future and well-being lie in the hands of the girl he’s just met.
(71 votes)
Mooviees.com is not the official site for this film.
All editorial views and opinions expressed here are for entertainment purposes only.
Movie Database
In Theaters
