SYNOPSICS
The Jacket (2005) is a English movie. John Maybury has directed this movie. Adrien Brody,Keira Knightley,Daniel Craig,Kris Kristofferson are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2005. The Jacket (2005) is considered one of the best Drama,Fantasy,Mystery,Sci-Fi,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
The film centers on a wounded Gulf war veteran who returns to his native Vermont suffering from bouts of amnesia. He is hitching and gets picked up by a stranger, things go wrong when a cop pulls them over and is murdered by a stranger. The vet is wrongly accused of the killing and lands in an asylum. A disreputable doctor prescribes a course of experimental therapy, restraining him in a modified strength straight jacket-like device, and locks him away in a cadaver drawer in the basement morgue. During the course of his treatment, he gets flashbacks and visions of his future where he can foresee that he is to die in four days time; He just doesn't know how. And thus commences the classic race against time for this tortured veteran with an expiration date.
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The Jacket (2005) Reviews
An excellent movie if you can take wanting more when it's over.
I just finished the movie and it really is a great piece of work. No futuristic crap mixed up though you might expect it. Miss Knightley really does a great job playing the part, though her role seems to have been kept a bit too far in the background. The whole idea of changing the future has been brought up before, but this time instead of changing the future by altering the past it brings new perspective by altering the present by adding new info from the future. At first it reminded me very much of Butterfly Effect. If you like that one, you'll love this one. It also shines new light on the subject whether or not you can change your own destiny which hasn't been brought up in a while. It surely is a "must-see".
Artsy Twilight Zone
"The Jacket" has gotten some bad press because the plot has a lot of holes in it, but if you suspend belief and just enjoy the movie, it is a lot of fun. Any film that involves time travel requires that you suspend belief, and "The Jacket" is no different. What makes "The Jacket" better than most sci-fi thrillers is the production quality. The scenes in the hospital are done in muted colors which look like hand painted black and white. The scenes in the future are done in super saturated colors. I thought the super close-ups added to the disorientation and claustrophobia of the protagonist. The acting is first rate. Adrien Brody is convincingly haunted. Kiera Knightly does an acceptable American accent. Fans of "The Twilight Zone" should like this one. It is rated "R" for language, nudity, sex, violence, and disturbing images in a mental hospital; so you are getting your money's worth. If you like good production quality and want to go for a thrill ride, check this one out.
Jacob's Ladder meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Jack Starks (Adrien Brody) is pronounced dead during the Gulf War. Moments later, he shows signs of life again. He's discharged and tries to get back to his normal life in Vermont. But he had a severe head injury, he had amnesia for awhile, and he has periodic blackouts and maybe hallucinations. When he winds up being blamed for a serious crime, he is sent to a psychiatric prison. While there, he is subjected to a bizarre treatment involving a straightjacket. Starks begins to learn dark secrets about the hospital and surprising truths about his life. Can he emerge from his predicament unscathed? This is a high concept film--it's basically Jacob's Ladder (1990) meets One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975), with touches of similar "rubber reality" and mental institution flicks thrown in for good measure--a dash of Donnie Darko (2001), a touch of 12 Monkeys (1995), and so on. That it resembles a high concept amalgamation of modern films may be more surprising in light of the fact that the basic idea is adapted from a 1915 Jack London novel, The Star Rover, which was published as The Jacket in the UK. It might also be surprising to some readers that I'm giving a film that is so strongly derivative a 10. But I don't rate higher or lower based on originality or a lack of the same. To me, what matters is how well the film works, how well it is constructed for its ambitions. The Jacket is a fine piece of art. The performances are excellent. Adrien Brody in particular is amazing. His turns in what amounts to an "isolation chamber" are breathtaking. All of the principal actors, including Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Laura Marano and Kelly Lynch, produce finely nuanced work. The characterizations are demanding, as The Jacket requires them to play multiple realities, with different knowledge, relationships and attitudes to each other in most of the major scenes. But as good as the performances are, what really stands out is the direction. This is the first John Maybury film I've seen, and if it's any indication of his other work, I can't wait to see more. His direction is constantly inventive and challenging. For example, The Jacket begins with grainy war footage like the typical CNN almost "real-time" footage that was so popular during Operation Desert Storm. Maybury cuts it to enhance the chaos of war. When he moves to a more "normal" technique, he still exhibits a strong but subtle and unique touch. He is fond of unusual close-ups, frequently filling the screen with a character's mouth, eye, one side of their face from the cheek up, and so on. He also employs a lot of intriguing and bizarre inserts, and frequently constructs scenes with unusual pacing, often slower than other modern directors, or at least pulled like taffy on certain beats. But it's always right for a particular scene. The Jacket has a complex timeline structure that could easily fall apart in lesser hands; Maybury keeps the film easily coherent, and provides just the right amount of clues to the rubber reality aspects at just the right time. Echoing the unusual, contemplative, directorial temporal manipulations is a fine score (as if we could expect anything else) from Brian Eno. As a rubber reality film, it's important to not watch The Jacket expecting a neat, linear, tightly-wrapped and transparent plot. As is typical for the genre, multiple interpretations are encouraged, with little pushes and prods to help along audiences who might be reluctant to embrace hermeneutics. For example, in one scene, a character says, "We're all dead". And for less overt subtexts, it's worthwhile to note how Jack often tends to be handled throughout the film more like a slab of meat. But whatever your interpretation, an important and relatively clear subtext is that of using one's life from this point forward to the best of one's ability to effect the kind of world one would like to see. Maybury makes sure to convey a disbelief in strong determinism, although freedom from fate in the film comes at a cost, and it may not be able to completely circumvent destiny. Like Renny Harlin's version of The Exorcist: The Beginning (2004), The Jacket is really a "difficult" film that is likely to be approached with inappropriately philistine expectations that lead to complaints that it is boring or in some other way inadequate, pointless or non-entertaining. It deserves a more serious look than that. This is an excellent film.
Difficult to categorize but, for all its faults, still quite a gripping roller-coaster of a movie
Every so often there's a movie that's so hard to describe that it's to picture whether it's your type of movie or not. The Jacket melds about five different genres without falling firmly into any of them. Even to describe it as an 'alternative reality' movie could put off those who think, "Oh, no, not another sci-fi". I wouldn't describe it as sci-fi. There is a love story, but I wouldn't call it that. There's some pretty disturbing shots and dizzying camera work but it's not really a horror film. What can you rely on? A stellar cast for starters: Adrien Brody, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson. All needed as the story is not exactly flawless, but the combined characterisations and sheer ingenuity keep you in suspense and mostly make you want to forgive any shortcomings in this rather ambitious project. If you like stories nice and simple, stay away. If you like a challenge, The Jacket might fill the bill. It's not quite such a headbanging puzzle as Mulholland Drive, and it doesn't have the cutesiness of Donnie Darko, but it is in the realm of dark, weird and ultimately rather moving experimental film. Brody is Mr quite nice guy Jack Starks, apparently shot dead at point blank range in the Gulf War - but hang on a minute, his eyelids blink before they pronounce him dead and he recovers - with amnesia but otherwise OK - then he gets committed to an asylum for the criminally insane fro a murder he didn't do, and we're talking 1990s when some pretty strange experimental psychotherapy went on behind closed doors. Enter the old doctor, played by Kris Kristofferson, who looks like he's had one too many acid trips and survived and believes he can think up new treatments for nutters like Jack Starks. During some pretty unconventional (not say unethical by today's standards) solitary 'treatment', Starks sees himself in 2007. The treatment is a combination of drugs and sensory deprivation - a sort of Neanderthal NLP the hard way. Each time he is locked up in 'The Jacket', Starks' projected timeline lets him interact with other characters in his dilemma. It gets continuingly creepier and the tension builds to an ending that leaves you shocked, horrified and filled with warmth at the same time.
Profound Performance!
Adrian Brody deserves at least, an academy award nomination for his performance in this film. Sadly I fear this film won't be recognized because of it improper marketing and poor performance in the theaters. This film was promoted as a horror film, just look at the tag- line, "Terror has a new name!" What kind of crap is that? Anyway I don't think he will be recognized for this role even though I believe he should. Also, Kiera did a stunning job! I was totally surprised by her performance as well. I mean she hasn't been terrible in her past films, just no where near as deep or real as her role in this film. All in all I really enjoyed this film. The direction, cinematography, compositing (effects in his eyes) and Editing were superb. I will watch this one again and I would recommend it any day.