“The Jacket” (Warner Independent Pictures)
‘The Jacket” is a convoluted, confusing film that strives too hard to be quirky and injures its entertainment quotient by doing so. The cast which includes Adrian Brody, Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Kelly Lynch are all solid in their roles but they can’t create a solution to the labyrinth like turns the script makes.
The film starts in the 1990’s Gulf War where soldier Jack Starks (Brody) is assigned. He suffers a gunshot to the head and is pronounced dead, but returns to life. He is next seen a year later hitchhiking on roads in the winter. He gets a lift from a stranger (Brad Renfro) and his life goes downhill from there. He ends up accused and convicted of murder, but is sentenced to an asylum.
Later a doctor there (Kristofferson) submits him to an experiment which involves him being placed in a straight jacket and placed inside a morgue drawer. While inside the drawer he is able to see the future. That is where he meets a girl named Jackie (Knightley) with whom he falls in love.
There is a lot more to the plot than this brief outline and all of it is confusing. It will take many more viewings before I can fill in at least some of the gaps. But some of the plotholes are bound to remain unsolved and this makes the movie unsatisfactory. However the haunting last line of the film, which I won’t quote here, sends the audience out with a major question having been raised.
Brody shows that Oscar win wasn’t a fluke and Knightley is a more than equal co-star for his talents. Jennifer Jason Leigh always comes through in her roles and she does again here as another doctor at the asylum. The same is true for Kelly Lynch who has a pivotal role as the alcoholic mother of Knightley’s character. Also keep an eye out for Mackenzie Phillips as a “Nurse Ratchett” type at the asylum.
The movie is rated R for profanity, violence and brief nudity.
“The Jacket” is a movie designed to make the audience think, but perhaps its complexity and quirkiness are a little overdone. It is one thing to be fuzzy on the plot lines in order to make a point, but another to be vague just for the sake of being vague. “The Jacket” might be guilty of being vague just to be vague. Still I have to say it intrigued me and I will watch it again. I suspect others will too.
I scored “The Jacket” a restraining 6 out of 10.
