Susan Granger's review of "The Jacket" (Warner Independent/Mandalay
Pictures)
From the theatrical Coming Attractions, I assumed this was a gothic
horror
picture. It is. But it has a time-traveling metaphysical twist that's both
exciting and thought-provoking.
Gaunt Adrien Brody, who won an Oscar for "The Pianist," stars as
Jack
Starks, a Marine who was 27 years old when he was shot in the head by an
Arab
kid during the Gulf War back in 1992. Pronounced dead, Starks was rushed
to a
hospital when a medic saw him blink. Then, still shell-shocked, he was
sent
home to Vermont with retrograde amnesia. Which explains why he can't
remember
much when a policeman is killed by the driver (Brad Renfro) of a car in
which
he'd hitched a ride. As a result, he's sent Apine Grove Psychiatric
Hospital
for the criminally insane.
Medicated into a stupor, Starks is routinely tormented, tortured and
traumatized by a sadistic psychiatrist (Kris Kristofferson) who confines
him in
a straight-jacket, straps him to a metal slab and stuffs him into a morgue
drawer for hours at a time. This cruel, claustrophobic "behavior
modification"
technique not only spurs him to recall a drugged-out mother (Kelly Lynch)
and
her young daughter whom he helped when their car broke down but also,
mysteriously, catapults him ahead to 2007, when the now-grown daughter
(Keira
Knightley) is working in a roadside diner.
Avante-garde British director John Maybury ("Love Is the Devil")
cleverly
constructs the harrowing visuality of Massy Tadjedin's Kafka-esque
screenplay,
based on a story by Tom Bleeker and Marc Rocco that inevitably evokes
memories
of "12 Monkeys." On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Jacket" is a
mesmerizing, mind-bending 8. It's a deeply unsettling, chillingly surreal
psychological thriller.
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X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1365950
X-RT-TitleID: 10003710
X-RT-SourceID: 742
X-RT-AuthorID: 1274
X-RT-RatingText: 8/10
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