Day 79: The Jacket (2005)

For today’s film, I felt like I need a little mystery and drama in my life and I found today’s film laying around. The film is called The Jacket and it stars Adrien Brody (Predators) as Jack Stark, an injured gulf war veteran. Jack Stark was injured in the line of combat and sent home to Vermont suffering from acute Amnesia. After a mishap, he is accused of murdering a police officer, but because of his condition they believe he has no memory of it and he is sent to a hospital for the criminally insane. While he is there, he is put through some torturous acts by Doctor Becker (Kris Kristofferson) who puts him in a morgue drawer. While in the drawer, Jack has some revelations about the future and he tries to solve it before he meets his untimely death. The film also stars Keira Knightley (Domino) as Jackie Price, Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Breakfast Club) as Dr. Lorenson, Kelly Lynch (Road House) as Jean Price, Daniel Craig (Sky Fall) as Rudy Mackenzie, Steven Mackintosh (Kick-Ass 2) as Dr. Hopkins, Brendan Coyle (The Raven) as Damon, Mackenzie Phillips (One Day At A Time) as Nurse Harding, and the film was directed by John Maybury (The Edge Of Love).

The best way that I can describe this film to you is to think of The Butterfly Effect, but in a mental hospital and without the bad repercussions and distorted realities. By going inside this morgue drawer, he is able to go into what some would call hallucinations, but he is actually in the future. The only thing is that at first they don’t really explain that he is in the future very well as you think it’s a memory that he is having until he finds one key object that you’ll have to watch for yourself to find out what I am talking about. I do however want to say that truly believe that this film had to be Adrien Brodys best role that he had ever done in his career. He was absolutely brilliant in the film and I have to give it to Daniel Craig as well. Craig is really convincing as a crazy guy who believes that he isn’t that crazy. Keira Knightley is smoking hot and we get to see a little more of her than I expected in the film, but she does great as well. I am surprised I haven’t seen more of this film on Television or anything else. I stumbled upon it not realizing that I had the movie and I never watched it (believe me for some strange reason I have a lot of those). Anyhow, I was very impressed with the film and enjoyed it a lot. They list it on IMDB as a horror film, but more suspense in my opinion. I mean the tones of the film are very dark and bleak like a horror film, but it’s more of a mystery story. So, I am going to give the film an B+/A- for a final grade because it borders on both of those grades.