The jacketNo good deed goes unpunished. Whether by fate, circumstance, or just bad luck, altogether decent guy and Iraq War veteran, Jack Starks (Adrien Brody) is confronted with his own mortality more than once surrounding events in which he has made a selfless act. It would be altogether too cruel of a conclusion to make that he is forced to make sacrifices in the name of his common decency, but regardless, his true self directs him to act as a type of sacrificial martyr, even though he never intends to die for it. But as he observes in the first few moments, he remembers what it was like the first time he died...
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The Jacket is a psychological thriller in a literal sense, because what Jack experiences, the unexplained anxiety and bizarre circumstances which result after the experimental--and frankly, unethical--treatment administered to him by Dr. Thomas Becker (Kris Kristofferson) leaves him with both revelations of his forgotten memories surrounding the crime for which he was wrongly convicted and insight into his own doom yet to come. Jack was discovered along with a slain police officer in the cold winter of Vermont, and presumed to be the killer. What little we know of Jack comes from the dramatic irony of our own witness to his selflessness just prior to the fatal incident, when he helped a young girl and her unappreciative, drunk mother after their car had broken down. The young girl, Jackie, is fascinated by the kindness of the veteran, and after inquiring about Jack's dog tags, he gives them to her as a present. The dog tags will serve as a link between time for Jack, after he experiences the supernatural effects of Dr. Becker's treatment, one which even the "good doctor" appears to be oblivious to its existence. The Jacket largely derives its title from the straight jacket which Jack is placed within, followed with a long stretch of time where he is placed on a morgue slab, sealed away in a morbid kind of sensory deprivation. Although his cognitive resources had been damaged after he was shot in the head in Iraq, he begins to remember more from the first session; but it is the second go around which has the most profound and unexpected results. On Christmas Eve, Jack finds himself outside a diner, where the last waitress to get off of her shift, a troubled woman named Jackie (Keira Knightley), offers him a ride. She claims she has no interest in making friends, but allows for him to crash at her place, where Jack discovers a shocking revelation: the young waitress in her twenties is the same girl he helped in 1992; only now, the year is 2007, and he has leapt forward in time. Unsure as to why this phenomenon has taken place, Jack is convinced he must try to engage Dr. Becker to put him back into the jacket, although another friendly physician on staff, Dr. Beth Lorenson (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is rightly concerned about not only Jack's mental well-being, but his physical one as well, when she finds numerous bruises on his body corresponding with the archaic restraint device.
What makes Jack such an interesting character is that although he does not actively pursue heroic deeds, he is a hero because he has good moral fiber; he helps those he can because it is the right thing to do. From the onset of The Jacket, he tries to help a scared young man whose country he--and the military he represents--has occupied, only to receive a bullet in the head from the frightened boy. Miraculously, Jack survives, as though he were destined to continue to pass along this benevolence unto the world some more, perhaps by some guardian angel. Whatever the case may be, Jack cheats death, but loses his memory. Still, he continues to do nice things even though he has no real cause to do so, like when he helps Jackie and her mother, Jean (Kelly Lynch), and later Dr. Lorenson with her private case to help the child of a friend of her's. Compare Jack's character with that of Dr. Becker, who appears as a villain from the start, engaging in apparently cruel and indifferent experiments on Jack, as he has with others before him. Dr. Becker works under the auspices of treating the mentally ill, but in reality he is dispassionate to the welfare of his subjects, whom are all convicted criminals first in his eyes, and do not require the same level of humanitarianism that those who have not committed crimes deserve. The dynamic between Jack and Dr. Becker is somewhat reminiscent of the conflict between the two opposing ethical viewpoints of Mac and Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; a group therapy session where Jack encourages his fellow inmate, Rudy Mackenzie (Daniel Craig) to incite a frenzy among the other patients further exemplifies this. Jack comes away from his sessions in the "womb-like environment" of Dr. Becker's treatment sessions with knowledge and insight which could only come from a level of foresight not in keeping with delusion, a thought which proves rattling to Dr. Lorenson, when he informs her about things he knows about her he could only have know if she told him--which she hasn't...yet. And although the film is called The Jacket, there is nothing in the plot which really suggests that the straight jacket Jack wears is endowed with any power, but that his mind is what allows for him to travel in time. This concept of time travel through a kind of "astral projection" crossing the fourth dimension is similar to another film--Somewhere in Time--where the main character, Richard, surrounds himself with items from the past, and is able to convince himself he has traveled back in time; the major difference here is that Jack has gone forward in time without any intention of doing so, deprived of a frame of reference. But Jack is taken forward to Jackie because he is needed; he has been a hero to her once, and as the story unfolds, he discovers what he must do to be one to her again.
Recommended for: Fans of a mystery involving time travel, and how others perceive a hero who is regarded as criminally insane by his captors/doctors. It is also a rare film which is something of a B-movie, but has a talented cast of recognizable actors playing against type.
What makes Jack such an interesting character is that although he does not actively pursue heroic deeds, he is a hero because he has good moral fiber; he helps those he can because it is the right thing to do. From the onset of The Jacket, he tries to help a scared young man whose country he--and the military he represents--has occupied, only to receive a bullet in the head from the frightened boy. Miraculously, Jack survives, as though he were destined to continue to pass along this benevolence unto the world some more, perhaps by some guardian angel. Whatever the case may be, Jack cheats death, but loses his memory. Still, he continues to do nice things even though he has no real cause to do so, like when he helps Jackie and her mother, Jean (Kelly Lynch), and later Dr. Lorenson with her private case to help the child of a friend of her's. Compare Jack's character with that of Dr. Becker, who appears as a villain from the start, engaging in apparently cruel and indifferent experiments on Jack, as he has with others before him. Dr. Becker works under the auspices of treating the mentally ill, but in reality he is dispassionate to the welfare of his subjects, whom are all convicted criminals first in his eyes, and do not require the same level of humanitarianism that those who have not committed crimes deserve. The dynamic between Jack and Dr. Becker is somewhat reminiscent of the conflict between the two opposing ethical viewpoints of Mac and Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; a group therapy session where Jack encourages his fellow inmate, Rudy Mackenzie (Daniel Craig) to incite a frenzy among the other patients further exemplifies this. Jack comes away from his sessions in the "womb-like environment" of Dr. Becker's treatment sessions with knowledge and insight which could only come from a level of foresight not in keeping with delusion, a thought which proves rattling to Dr. Lorenson, when he informs her about things he knows about her he could only have know if she told him--which she hasn't...yet. And although the film is called The Jacket, there is nothing in the plot which really suggests that the straight jacket Jack wears is endowed with any power, but that his mind is what allows for him to travel in time. This concept of time travel through a kind of "astral projection" crossing the fourth dimension is similar to another film--Somewhere in Time--where the main character, Richard, surrounds himself with items from the past, and is able to convince himself he has traveled back in time; the major difference here is that Jack has gone forward in time without any intention of doing so, deprived of a frame of reference. But Jack is taken forward to Jackie because he is needed; he has been a hero to her once, and as the story unfolds, he discovers what he must do to be one to her again.
Recommended for: Fans of a mystery involving time travel, and how others perceive a hero who is regarded as criminally insane by his captors/doctors. It is also a rare film which is something of a B-movie, but has a talented cast of recognizable actors playing against type.