The Jacket (2005) – Classic Film Review 913

Director John Maybury’s ambitious, eye-catching 2005 film is a stylish, arty and impenetrably baffling puzzle thriller.

Adrien Brody stars as a US Gulf War soldier who is shot in the head in Iraq in 1991 (‘the first time I died’) and sent back to America. There he’s wrongfully sent to a mental institution for insane criminals after hitching a ride with a driver who kills a cop. He becomes the tormented subject of the crazy experiments of a mad doctor (Kris Kristofferson), who locks patients in morgue drawers. But he is befriended by an attractive young woman (Keira Knightley) and a nice doctor (Jennifer Jason Leigh).

With a time-travel theme taking its wearying toll of the plot and characters, the actors can do little except pose and look gloomy, which they do admirably, though Brian Eno’s eerie score and Pater Deming’s arty cinematography catch the attention big time are the film’s the major assets. The always at least intriguing screenplay is by Massy Tadjedin, based on the story by Tom Bleecker, Marc Rocco.

There are 18 credited producers, including George Clooney and Steven Soderberg! Their clout ensured an art movie got the helping hand of a big studio (Warner Bros) release. Daniel Craig, Kelly Lynch, Brad Renfro, Steven Mackintosh and Mackenzie Phillips also star. Craig also starred in Maybury’s 1998 film about the artist Francis Bacon, Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998).  Knightley also starred in Maybury’s 2008 film The Edge of Love.

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 913 derekwinnert.com