The Jacket

The Jacket (Director: John Maybury)

The British Maybury has a few credits, but nothing in which you've probably heard.

Boy, it's amazing what a couple of horror films and thrillers like Boogeyman does for critics. Across the board, you're seeing the positive reviews citing this as not that great, but at least it's original, or it has style, or...something. For me, I thought it was okay.

Jack Starks (Adrien Brody) has been shot and assumed dead in the early-90s Gulf War, only to come back to life and be able to return to the U.S. On his way, he helps a drugged-out mother Jean (Kelly Lynch) and her sweet little daughter Jackie (Laura Marano) get their stalled truck going again, only to be berated by Jean in a drug-addled haze. He gives his dog tags to the girl after she asks if she can have them, and begins walking and hitching again only to be unknowingly picked up by an outlaw who, when pulled over by a trooper, pulls a gun. Next thing we see is a bunch of flashes and Starks goes through a trial as it is assumed that he killed the trooper, and he's found not guilty by reason of insanity--Gulf War Syndrome, and so on. He's sent to a hospital where Dr. Becker (Kris Kristofferson) sees his criminally insane as merely criminals and has them suit up in a straitjacket and filed into a morgue-like drawer for treatment for a few hours a day, a practice frowned upon by Dr. Lorenson (Jennifer Jason Leigh).

While inside this drawer, Starks enters into the distant future, where he at first unknowingly meets the grown-up Jackie (the ultra-fine Keira Knightley). When she helps him out on a cold Christmas Eve, he comes back to her place and notices she has his old dog tags. This is the point in the film where Starks must preface almost everything he says with, "I don't know how to say this without sounding crazy," and then telling people something crazy. Every time he comes back, he's got some sort of knowledge he really shouldn't have, but he ultimately knows he can use it to help in his quest.

It's all told with the suspense of a thriller, and as if there's going to be a big twist in the end, but this gets fairly straightforward after the movie tells you what's going on. In fact, I had to sort of think about the movie after watching it and wonder if it really needed the pacing of a thriller. It could have easily worked as a drama or sci-fi, but hey, we're trying to market this thing--horror/thrillers get people in the seats. I will say the movie gets kudos for not coming up with some dumb lame-ass twist. It all really depends on whether or not you can get beyond the deceptive aura of this film, and whether you believe the film's time-traveling premise serving as a major plot accelerator. Some people are just going to absolutely love this. I got around the believability of all this (barely--some events made me question it), but I found the film a little jarring.

Brody is, as always, likeable, and Keira Knightley is quite good (I'm sure her brief nudity will get most of the attention--as it should! I mean...shouldn't). It's a decent timewaster, I see this being a huge cult hit.