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 "The Jacket" Chris' Review: "You can't break something that's already broke." Oh, Adrien! This movie would be lost without you. I wish I could fill you in on the plot, but I really hate giving away surprise twists... and this one is full of them. Adrien Brody plays Jack Starks, ex-military who comes back from the war with some serious memory problems. (He got shot in the head and survived! Give the boy a break!) Due to some unfortunate circumstances, he winds up in a mental institution where he meets up with Doctor Thomas Becker (Kris Kristopherson) who puts him in a jacket and gives him some drugs and sends him on a Butterfly Effect type of trip. The nice thing about this movie is that it doesn't treat the time travel bit like a gimmick, but makes it into a psychological thriller, a mystery, and a love story. It does a much better job than the Butterfly Effect, but it still fails in making a cohesive movie. The entire time you're wondering what's missing, why you aren't enjoying the movie more. Keira Knightly really seems to be phoning it in. Maybe it's just the script, the material, maybe she was having a bad day on the set, but her character never really seems to change. All the properties of her life are getting rearranged and she acts like the same person, regardless of the circumstances. Not only that, but she completely fails to make us believe that she has any real emotions about all this supernatural stuff that's happening to her. On the other hand, Adrien makes this movie work. As disjointed as it feels, as convoluted and confusing as the plot gets, Adrien makes it work and you believe him in the role. It's not that Butterfly Effect was a worse movie, but the acting in The Jacket is better. One plot point that made me quite uncomfortable was when Adrien goes forward in time. He meets up with Jackie Price (Keira) as her adult self, sleeps with her, then goes back and visits with her as a child again. Something of that just makes me think pedophilia... It gives me the willies...like thinking about my sister naked or something. The editing is admirable. We are still locked into the new standard of using jump cuts and fast movements for confusion...but Jacket keeps them confined to the times of intense confusion and leaves the rest of the movie alone. Instead, to give that uneasy feeling, most of the movie is lit like it's a cloudy day, snowstorms are used to cloud vision, and distant camera shots are used for that disaffected feeling. Jacket brings us back to classic artistic devices to bring the viewer into the mind of the protagonist. Overall, I enjoyed the movie and was especially impressed with Adriens acting... But it wasn't enough to save it from my wrath in this review. I give it 2 thumbs up. I may watch it again, but I doubt I'll shell out the dough for the DVD.   Jim's Review: BackHome - Info - Reviews - Map - Message Board - Photo Album |
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