The Jacket

In "The Jacket", Adrian Brody plays a Gulf War veteran accused of a murder he may or may not have committed, sentenced to an institution for the criminally insane. His doctor (Kris Kristofferson) puts him through a very unorthodox treatment: strapping him into a straight-jacket like device and sliding him into a morgue drawer for hours at a time to create a kind of isolation tank atmosphere. Jack (Brody) finds that in this setting he goes wandering into the future, fourteen years in the future to be precise, and learns that he died of a head wound on New Year's Day of 1993. So with only four days remaining until that time, how is he going to make enough people believe his story is true to enable him to find out what happened and prevent his death? And besides, just because he... a man known to suffer hallucinations... believes this to be true, does that mean it is?

Now, there are movie reviewers who would have you believe they're always open-minded. Not me. I admit to an instinctive dislike of sports movies, for instance (unless they're about baseball), and likewise I almost always find myself at least INTRIGUED by "puzzle" movies like "Memento" and "The Machinist", in which the very reality of what you're watching is called into question, where you're never sure what certain plot developments mean until the very final scene, and where several different seemingly contradictory things could nevertheless all be equally true. That is exactly the kind of movie "The Jacket" is. And while it may frustrate those looking for standard linear story telling, it had me hooked right from the beginning.

The story takes place in several different times almost simultaneously: flashbacks to Jack's Gulf War experiences and the murder he might have committed are presented in a halucinogenic, nightmarish style; the "present day" scenes in the institute are totally naturalistic; and the "future" scenes are often filmed in a kind of golden glow more often associated with dreamy nostalgia, which somehow makes them frightening. Pay attention and there's nowhere near as much trouble keeping it all straight as you might fear, even if what it all MEANS is up for grabs.

The acting is uniformly fine, including that of Jennifer Jason Leigh as a doctor at the Institute who's considerably more kindly than Kristofferson, and Kiera "Pirates of the Carribean" Knightley as the "future" adult version of a 10-year-old girl Jack meets in the "present."
The look and feel of the film makes even the most prosaic of moments terrifying, and while not overwhelming the story or characters, makes "The Jacket" one of the most stylish movies in recent years. You're sitting there in the theatre, safe in your seat, but at the same time you're having a very beautiful looking nightmare.

By the end of the movie, are you at least clear about what's happened? Well, sort of. Depends on how much of which events you
choose to believe are real and which aren't. Depending on your choice, you could have at least a half-dozen different versions of what it all means. Personally, I don't even want to limit myself to just one... I think any one of them is equally intriguing. And, just in case you're thinking I'm only praising this movie because I like "puzzle movies"... well, yes, I do, but while I might still ENJOY this film even if it wasn't as well-made as it is, I wouldn't be PRAISING it. This really IS a well-MADE movie.

"The Jacket" takes a genre (well, it really is a kind of genre of its own) that has been taking up more and more screens in art houses in recent years, and brings it into the multiplexes to baffle some audiences and dazzle others. Count me among the dazzled.