The Jacket
2005
* * *
A soldier in the Gulf War (Adrian Brody) survives a head wound and is honorably discharged. However, once he gets home, he suffers memory loss at a crucial juncture, and is framed for the shooting of a police officer. He is brought to a mental institution where a small-scale conflict is brewing between a kind nurse (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and the guy running the institution (Kris Kristopherson), who just happens be torturing the soldier by locking him in a morgue box. While in there, he eventually realizes that he can travel to the future, where he meets the grown-up version (Keira Knightly) of a girl he helped out just before being institutionalized. Also, he learns that in the present, he's going to die in a week.
This unfairly (but also unsurprisingly) forgotten sci-fi/horror/drama is a very strange film. Bizarre barely begins to discribe it.
However, it definitely grabs you right at first. The claustrophobic, intense, and yet artistic direction makes everything simply terrifying... and it continues to do so throughout. The movie is absolutely riviting on a visceral and emotional level.
Unfortunately, because the script isn't as good as it should be, there isn't a satisfying payoff or even buildup of those emotions on the level needed to really succeed. On the one hand, the script is intelligent and fascinating. However, it doesn't seem to understand how real humans interact with one another. People accept out-there stories far too easily. The romance is given far too little attention for it to work the way it should. And most of the resolutions to the various plot threads are way too easy to be really satisfying. Other things aren't ever resolved; as an example, someone who in the present doesn't like Jack mentions something in the future about how much they liked him, and then it's never explained why the guy had a change of heart.
The ending doesn't work the way it should either. Emotionally, it's somewhat satisfying and it's nicely done, but logically it doesn't work.
(SPOILER: I'm not talking about the paradox it creates. It's the fact that everything Jack does besides what changes the future has to happen in both futures. In fact, the only reason he dies the way he is supposed to in the old future happens after he changes everything. If that made any sense whatsoever. END SPOILER)
However, the film is completely and utterly saved by one thing: the cast. Brody and Knightly both give such incredibly believable and powerful performances that they single-handedly overcome the many flaws thrown in their way. They have enough chemistry that their romance works far better than it should. They make everything work. On top of that, Kristopherson is genuinely frightening as the villain, and Leigh gives a completely solid performance to round it all out.
On top of that, the direction and cinematography are superb, and the parts of the script that are good are very good. Overall, it's a disappointing but still gripping and compelling sci-fi film.
Of course, whether or not you like it is a matter of taste. It's really, really out there, and the mere fact that it grabs your emotions may not be enough for you to find it enjoyable if this isn't your kind of film. It really is kind of like a solid, deliberately-paced Twilight Zone episode (that lasts two hours). If that sounds like your kind of film, this is definitely worth seeing.
Of course, it didn't win any awards, and, with its pathetic box-office and low profile, never had a chance in hell, but if life was fair, Brody and Knightly would both get Oscar nominations (and maybe Kristopherson, too).
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