A clever sci-fi thriller directed by John Maybury that pays homage to both 12 MONKEYS and JACOB'S LADDER. Jack Starks is a soldier fighting in the Persian Gulf who gets shot in the head by a young, frightened kid. He returns to life as he's about to be pronounced dead only and resumes his life in the States after the was is over. One day, he has two fateful encounters that will mark his life from then on: a drunken mother and her young daughter whose car he fixes, and a man who picks him up only to be later stopped by a state trooper. Caught and sent to a state mental facility, he gets an abusive form of shock treatment with an experimental drug that allows him to re-visit his past, his future, and enable to change and re-shape his own life.
THE JACKET may not have the much of the whimsical imagery and multiple, confusing story lines of 12 MONKEYS and the sense of impending horror present in JACOB'S LADDER, but its sparse images and the sense of cold, realistic despair sets it aside in its own right and allow for the more sci-fi elements to come through believably. This mental facility is a little closer to the one in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, with Kris Kristofferson playing a male counterpart to Louise Fletcher's Nurse Ratched. Daniel Craig has a small part as a lunatic who may or not have murdered his own wife and knows about this "jacket" where patients are sent to face their own "corrective reassignment". Keira Knightley plays a dual role, in which for the most of the movie, her character comes off as harsh, bitter, but once a warning is taken into consideration, she reintroduces herself to Brody as a compassionate, friendly person. Hers is the type of role that Jennifer Jason Leigh would have had a field day with, but Jason Leigh comes off well as a well-meaning doctor who wants to help Brody.
THE JACKET is a pretty good entry in the time-traveling genre, but in essence, all it is is a murder mystery with sci-fi overtones. The problem with the movie is that the issue of did-he/didn't he never gets resolved the way it should be; hence, the character of Jack Starks remains positioned in this Kafkaesque place where he is perpetually the victim of a crime he did not commit. Other minor points, such as a comeuppance for Dr. Becker, do not happen in a satisfactory way, but even then it still is an entertaining watch, especially when there aren't many movies today that can tackle the issue of time-bending without insulting the audience or selling out.
THE JACKET may not have the much of the whimsical imagery and multiple, confusing story lines of 12 MONKEYS and the sense of impending horror present in JACOB'S LADDER, but its sparse images and the sense of cold, realistic despair sets it aside in its own right and allow for the more sci-fi elements to come through believably. This mental facility is a little closer to the one in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, with Kris Kristofferson playing a male counterpart to Louise Fletcher's Nurse Ratched. Daniel Craig has a small part as a lunatic who may or not have murdered his own wife and knows about this "jacket" where patients are sent to face their own "corrective reassignment". Keira Knightley plays a dual role, in which for the most of the movie, her character comes off as harsh, bitter, but once a warning is taken into consideration, she reintroduces herself to Brody as a compassionate, friendly person. Hers is the type of role that Jennifer Jason Leigh would have had a field day with, but Jason Leigh comes off well as a well-meaning doctor who wants to help Brody.
THE JACKET is a pretty good entry in the time-traveling genre, but in essence, all it is is a murder mystery with sci-fi overtones. The problem with the movie is that the issue of did-he/didn't he never gets resolved the way it should be; hence, the character of Jack Starks remains positioned in this Kafkaesque place where he is perpetually the victim of a crime he did not commit. Other minor points, such as a comeuppance for Dr. Becker, do not happen in a satisfactory way, but even then it still is an entertaining watch, especially when there aren't many movies today that can tackle the issue of time-bending without insulting the audience or selling out.