The Jacket
At first I thought the two stars of this movie were miscast, but they pulled off their roles so solidly that I think they were just fine. The somewhat Dustin Hoffmanesque Adrien Brody is a Gulf War veteran who suffers from a mental condition caused by wartime trauma that prevents him from remembering the past clearly. He often just sees flashes of events that happened to him in the past that come at him like pieces to a puzzle that he can't focus on well enough to solve. He is put in a mental institution after being declared criminally insane and being connected to a murder.
At the institution, a shady doctor forces him to undergo a treatment that is just as traumatic as the events that caused his condition. During this treatment, he finds himself traveling through time in a manner he can't control. During the time travel, he encounters a girl that he had known before from earlier in his life: Keira Knightley who is oddly cast as a burnout waitress but settles into the role nicely after a little while. The relationship between these two characters is not given much time or space to develop, but the actors have a charming bit of chemistry going that makes it very pleasant to witness as it unfolds.
The other actors range from passable to laughable but they are more plot devices, to advance the story rather than realistic living, breathing people. the institution itself is not shown enough to seem real (only a couple of rooms are seen) and most of the parts of the film that take place there and dont involve the jacket borrow too heavily from Twelve Monkeys to be interesting. The mood of the movie is a key factor to enjoyment here through the cinematography, lighting, tone etc... give the film an intriguing tone (not unlike one you would find in an M. Night Shyamalan film) that helps the viewer to really "get into it." It is certainly not original and certainly not great and maybe not even a memorable movie, but I was quite entertained. If you're into this mind bending, time traveling stuff, I say give it a look. Just don't expect too much and you will probably be surprised.
Strummer's grade: B+
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"Like all dreamers, Steven mistook disenchantment for truth."
"Like all dreamers, Steven mistook disenchantment for truth."
Last edited by Strummer521; 07-15-05 at 03:19 AM.