The Jacket (2005)
You walk into "The Jacket" knowing
it's about a wrongfully incarcerated man who gets
shot full of drugs and put in a morgue drawer in a
straight-jacket night after night. The effects of
the drugs and the isolation allow him to somehow time
travel into the future. That's the set-up of the film
that's pretty much been covered in its marketing and
preview trailer. Luckily, the film wastes little time
in set-up getting to this premise. Star Adrien Brody,
playing Jack Starks, is in the nut house, on medication
and being put in the drawer fairly quickly in the
movie.
From here on, "The Jacket" is a
somewhat conventional time travel/mystery film much
like "The Philadelphia Experiment" and other films.
It's fairly easy to follow and pretty cool to watch.
To be sure, watching hottie Brody
and his sexy co-star Keira Knightley for 90 minutes
is a pretty easy thing to do. Brody has a couple shots
where he's wearing tighty whiteys and a few shirtless
scenes and he looks beautiful throughout the film.
His relaxed manner, genuine smile and likeable demeanor
makes it pretty easy to like his character. Brody,
as we have seen time and again, is a pretty cool guy
and a pretty awesome actor. No surprises there.
There are also really good performances
from his co-stars including Knightly, Jennifer Jason
Leigh (I didn't even know she was in this film), Kris
Krsitofferson (in his meatiest role in ages), and
Kelly Lynch. Mackenzie Phillips, seemingly not seen
since the 80's, has a wonderful small role as an orderly
at the mental institution in the film and it's really
awesome to see her in a decent movie after all these
years.
While there is nothing particularly
new and innovative about "The Jacket," it is still
a good film with an interesting story to engage the
viewer, good acting, attractive stars to look at,
and a genuine desire to be unique and interesting
visually. It ends with a pretty nice and poignant
message about the absolute beauty of our brief time
here on Earth as well. If nothing else, it sure beats
the hell out of "The Butterfly Effect."
Notes:
Also with Brad Renfro and Daniel
Craig.
Steven Soderberg, George Clooney,
Mark Cuban, Peter Gruber, Phillip McKeon, and Mark
Rocco are producers. Rocco also wrote the story for
the film's original screenplay. Rocco is Alex Rocco's
son. He and McKeon (best known for playing Tommy on
the TV show "Alice") made one of my favorite unknown
movies, "Where the Day Takes You."
Mark Wahlberg and Colin Farrell
were attached at times before Brody landed the role.
At one time Antoine Fuqua was attached to direct.
John Maybury eventually got the job.
Iggy Pop's "The Idiot" album cover
can be seen in one scene. Iggy also does a song over
the end credits. Score music used is by Brian Eno.
A poster of Bowie's "Aladdin Sane" is used in one
set.
Viewed in Austin in March 2005 with
my friend Johnny Oh!
