The Jacket Movie Review: By Adam Mast, ZBoneMan.com

The Jacket opens in a compelling way. Compelling in that I was curious to see where the movie was headed. It certainly piqued my curiosity. Unfortunately, the journey becomes less and less involving as the film progresses, and a severe lack of any kind of satisfactory explanation makes for a movie experience that is more frustrating than anything else.

Adrien Brody is convincing and, even though I wouldn’t call this a fully textured character, the actor evokes empathy and I wanted to see him prevail. Of course, Brody is no stranger to this sort of part. I’d really like to see this talented individual do other types of roles. More on par with his high energy work in Spike Lee’s Son of Sam. I hope his work in Peter Jackson’s version of King Kong proves to be a turning point in his career, because he’s a fascinating performer. Keira Knightley is more creepy than anything else, and her American accent is hardly convincing. Kris Kristofferson plays the typical grizzled character, and there isn’t much difference between the role he plays in the Blade series and the character he plays here. The only major difference is that in Blade, he was a vampire slayer. Jennifer Jason Leigh is rather bland as Jack’s psychiatrist. She’s a talented actress, but this part has no depth to it.

Director John Maybury has an interesting visual sense. The sequences in which Jack is subjected to so-called rehabilitation are frightening even though Brody’s groans of panic sound more like groans of orgasmic pleasure. The visual imagery and POV editing techniques Maybury and his crew use to put us in Jack’s situation are unsettling.

Unfortunately, Tom Bleecker and Marc Rocco’s screenplay isn’t nearly as interesting as the look of the picture. It piles one strange occurrence atop another, and as a result, not only are we never sure if Jack is really traveling through time - we don’t care. At least I didn’t.

The Jacket tries hard to grab our attention and the more it unfolded, the more I was reminded of two infinitely stronger films. Twelve Monkeys (which is far more poignant) and Jacob’s Ladder which, as trippy as it was, made rational sense by the end and was one hell of a lot scarier. Even last year’s Butterfly Effect – which is hardly a masterpiece – was more creative and sensible with it’s similar story structure. The Jacket is so hell bent on tripping us out, that it ultimately loses it’s way. And don’t even get me started on the awful ending in which Maybury is insistent on spoon-feeding the audience’s precisely what happens to the film’s main characters instead of letting us ponder it for ourselves. Stupid.

The Jacket could have been a really good movie, as both an interesting sci-fi thriller and a heartfelt tale of people getting a second chance. Instead, it’s a pretty forgettable story with a lot of flash, but far to little meat on it’s bones.

It’s been reported that Maybury has been running at the mouth about how unhappy he is with the fashion in which Warner Brothers has marketed The Jacket. In my opinion, he should be thanking his lucky stars they released at all.

Grade: C

Adam Mast, ZBoneMan.com