The Jacket (2005)

[Mr_Vindictive]

Just finished this film and I must say that I was highly impressed.  I loved the trailer when I first saw it online last year, but after reading reviews calling the film "mediocre" at best, I decided to stay away from it at the theater.

The film follows Jack Starks (Adrien Brody).  He's a vet from Desert Storm and was dismissed from service after getting shot in the head.  Flash forward 12 months to 1992.  Starks is hitchiking through Vermont when he finds a young girl and her mother broke down on the side of the road.  Starks helps them fix their car and gives the girl his dog tags.

He then gets picked up by a local redneck.  They are pulled by the police and the redneck kills the cop and frames Starks.  Starks is then sent to an insane asylum for the crime.

In the asylum, he is subjected to a version of sensory deprevation at the hands of Dr. Becker (Kris Kristofferson).  He's injected with medications, put in a straight jacket and thrown in a morgue drawer for hours at a time.  While in the drawer, he realizes that he can travel 15 years in the future to 2007.  It is there that he meets the young girl that he once helped, and finds out that he died 15 years earlier.

At first I didn't like the film.  I just couldn't seem to warm up to it.  By the halfway point though my adrenaline was going and I was completely in tune with the flick.  It's slow but damn it's tense, and keeps the suspense going until the last five minutes.

If I had to compare it to other films, I'd say it reminded me a hell of a lot like:

12 Monkeys
Butterfly Effect
Retroactive
Memento

I would highly recommend picking up this flick.  Very very very interesting / good SF flick.  

9/10



Post Edited (07-07-05 07:42)

[BeyondTheGrave]

I saw this in the movies when it first came out and did a review that I posted. Always felt it was a gulity pleasure of mine. I thought everything about the movie was ok but I enjoyed it alot and did say in my post I would get it on dvd. Got to get cracking. The only really complaint I had was the ending. Thats really due to personal tastes too. I felt Knightley became too nice. I liked the the old one better. I liked the crazy guy in the aslyum. "The 4 horsemen of the apocalypse are coming and they ain't bring flowers" is a personal fave line. of mine.


_____________________________
"We Greeks created democracy! You also created homos!"-Ghost World

[Mr_Vindictive]

Rich,

It sucks that I missed this flick at the theater.  

I agree about everything in the movie just being "ok".  It seems that while each piece was mediocre in itself, it did make for something quite enjoyable overall.  I think what I liked best about it was that it wasn't a flashy SF flick.  It took the subject seriously and was quite somber about it.

[Mofo Rising]

I agree with most of what you said, although I had the opposite experience while watching the movie.  I thought it started out strong but lost momentum as the film progressed.  This may have had something to do with the fact that as the film progressed, so did my level of non-sobriety.  Ultimately I don't think the film added up to anything in particular.  Just another time travel story.

I do find it amusing that the film took its story from a Jack London novel "The Star Rover".

I also enjoyed the crazy, claustrophobic scenes of him in the locker.

[Master Blaster]

I started watching it and then kinda tuned out after awhile. It's not a bad movie but for some reason it just didnt keep me. I was kinda suprised because usually I like the weird stuff. I kept thinking "could they at least clean the jacket? If you're going to drug a guy and stick him in a cubby hole at least dont needlessly strap him into a filthy poop smeared straitjacket."