J A C K E T (2005)
Hamster rating:
Directed by John Maybury
My impression of psychological thrillers has always been that they are a confusing, sadistic and convoluted 90 minutes that leave you a little less sure about the world you're living in. As morbid and cynical as I am, I need no help seeing the world that way, so I usually steer clear of them. After watching Jacket, I must conclude that either I have misjudged the genre, or that Jacket isn't actually a psychological thriller, because it was none of those qualities I just listed. John Maybury, employing the acting talents of Adrian Brody, Kiera Knightley and Kris Kristofferson, has instead crafted an artful film with an intriguing and sensitive story. It is well executed, using all of its elements from cinematography to music to their maximum effect. Instead of being freaked out and confused, I left Jacket feeling satisfied and rather uplifted.
Adrian Brody relaxes between takes on the set of Jacket.
Jacket opens with scenes from the first Gulf War, where we are introduced to Jack Starks, an American soldier who is shot in the head and left with brain damage. A year later, we see a recovered Jack tenderly play the good samaritan for a drunk woman named Jean and her sweet little daughter Jackie by fixing their car on a cold winter's day, and then get picked up as a hitchhiker. His driver is pulled over by a cop, at which point Jack blacks out. We next see him in a series of rough edits being accused of murdering said cop and being committed to a mental institution for the criminally insane. There, Jack is doped on all kinds of not-so-happy drugs, strapped in a straitjacket and locked for hours in a morgue drawer by Dr. Becker, a grizzled and possibly unbalanced psychiatrist who claims he is trying to cure Jack of his delusions. The torture quickly becomes something else for Jack, who discovers that he can apparently travel through time during these sessions in the drawer, catapulting from the present (1992) to 2007, where he uncovers what the future holds in store for himself and the now grown up Jackie, and try to change things for the better. He manages to find a tentative ally in Dr. Lorenson, Becker's more compassionate associate.
Stylistically, Jacket is strongly reminiscent of 12 Monkeys, Terry Gilliam's 1996 sci fi/thriller that also uses time travel as a plot device and a mental institution as a major setting. The institution's lighting is harsh flourescent, the walls are a chalky, antiseptic white and the place is very rundown and full of the typical bunch of characters Hollywood always puts in their asylums (see Patch Adams for another recent movie set in a mental institution). There's Catatonic Guy, Twitchy/Threatening Guy, and Eccentric-but-Helpful Guy, along with Mean Nurse, Mean Doctor and Sensitive Pretty Doctor Who Reluctantly Believes The Main Character. Those who have seen Gilliam's picture will recognize many other elements the movies share, but they are no less effective here. The script, by Tom Bleecker and Marc Rocco, has all the elements of an excellent short story that knows exactly where it's headed from start to finish, without relying on out-of-the-blue revelations or shock value to keep things interesting.
"99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beeeer..."
The colors, lights and sounds blend vividly throughout Jacket to create a variety of moods--the cold, humiliating exposure of the hospital, the unsettling, claustrophobic darkness of the morgue drawer, the tiny, hopeless universe of Jackie's dingy house. Set against a snowy winter landscape, everything appears very stark and gritty, taking the weird premise of time travel and drug tripping and grounding it firmly in an unromantic reality. This provides startling contrast with the colorful, rapid-fire dream sequences Jack experiences inside the drawer, and the opening sequences of Gulf War I carnage as seen through pixelated green night vision. Maybury's understanding of juxtaposition is further evident in the pairing of this war footage with gentle, soothing piano strains. The rest of the score is minimal and dream-like, beautifully accenting the story's gentler moments and conspicuoulsy absent to build stress and tension in the darker sequences.
Adrian Brody slips invisibly into the tortured nice guy that is Jack Starks, playing him with sensitivity, gentleness and anguish that is made all the more convincing by his lean, hungry looks. Keira Knightley turns in a surprisingly effective performance, affecting a flawless American accent and husky alto voice that pair with her hollow-eyed, waif-like appearance to fill out the mature Jackie's tormented character. Special kudos goes also to Kelly Lynch as Jean, whose appearance, speech patterns and mannerisms so closely match Knightley's that their mother-daughter relationship is completely convincing. Jennifer Jason Leigh doesn't get to stretch quite as far as Dr. Lorenson, but does it well, as does Kris Kristofferson, who is his usual grizzled, world-weary self as Dr. Becker, about whom we suspect much but know very little.
So much of Jacket is done well that is barely worth mentioning what didn't work so great, such as the romance between Jack and Jackie which erupts almost without warning and isn't really necessary to the story. Also, the ending feels just a little too sweet and tidy, considering how deeply scarred and complicated these characters are revealed to be. On the whole, though, Jacket is a deeply rewarding and worthwhile effort, telling a very human story whose thrills are more sensory and intellectual than creepy or freaky.
"Will all the Academy Award winners in the room raise their hand, please?"
