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When Adrien Brody gets strapped into a strait jacket and shoved into a morgue room drawer, with Kris Kristofferson leering down at him all the while, many movie-goers may become queasy. The Jacket, in this case does not mean Dior.  Writer Massy Tadjedin has fashioned a story that brings in elements of  “The Lathe of Heaven” (traveling while in dreams), “Tank Girl” ( star Lori Petty is pushed into a downward tube head-first and virtually squashed) and a Stephen King short story called “Autopsy Room Four” in which a man is about to be dissected and unable to tell people he is alive. Do I have your attention?

The Jacket begins with Brody (as Jack Starks) being shot in the head while fighting in the Gulf War. He wakes in an army hospital about to be declared dead when someone realizes he is breathing. From this point on, the audience needs to really watch the screen because the story goes back and forth between the future, past and present. Jack is discharged and sent to the U.S. with amnesia. He finds himself on trial for murdering a policeman (can't remember a thing), is declared insane and placed in a hospital (Alpine Grove) for the criminally insane. Kris Kristofferson is the whacko doctor who places patients in morgue cabinets as a form of shock therapy, unorthodox, to be sure. Jennifer Jason Leigh is another doctor at the hospital who seems unaware of what is going on. Brody finds that his time in the morgue starts to bring back past memories of who actually killed the policeman and also what will happen to Brody in the future. 

Adrien Brody, a naturally thin man, looks ravaged in The Jacket. Pumped full of drugs by Kristofferson and bounced around in a strait jacket would make anyone disheveled. . If you wondered what happened to Kris Kristofferson after Blade: Trinity, he found his way to The Jacket. Gruff voice and unshaven, Kris really looks the experimental doctor. Keira Knightley is a girl Brody meets from his past and future. Knightley is a beautiful woman, but she poses and doesn’t act in this film. Jennifer Jason Leigh looks so distracted one would hesitate to recommend her as a physician. On the other hand, whenever you see Brad Renfro’s name in the cast, you know this will be a film about a mental hospital and strait jackets. Renfro excels in performances of the dark spirit. 

The Jacket is a jumbled film to follow. Audiences should be given a scorecard as to which reality Brody is in at any given time. Ultimately, the film is a who-dunnit, why-dunnit and when-dunnit. There are surprising moments, but few and far between. I found The Jacket to be confusing to follow and that is unfortunate, for I feel in the maze of the film, there is a story waiting to be told. 

Copyright 2005 Marie Asner
Submitted 3/19/05