Sci Fi Sunday: The Jacket
The Jacket takes that hoary old SF chestnut, time travel, dispenses with the usual preoccupations of such tales - the how, the why and the potential ramifications - and instead gives us a love story.
A brain damaged Gulf War vet gets framed for murder and becomes an inmate at the Alpine Grove mental institution. Pretty soon one of the doctors is using him to test an experimental treatment that consists of doping him up, putting him in a straight jacket, and then sticking him in a morgue drawer for a few hours. Instead of feeling like he’s gone back to the womb as intended, he finds himself several years in the future. It sounds completely nuts, and as a piece of serious science fiction I suppose it is, but this isn’t a film concerned with SF conventions, it’s a film about damaged people, finding love and purpose.
Adding to the unorthodox nature of the film is Adrien Brody as the time travelling mental patient. Brody isn’t your typical leading man, he doesn’t have matinee idol looks like Brad Pitt, he looks like a regular guy and he brings that feeling to a character facing extreme experiences. He manages to keep a film about time travel via morgue drawer “real” with a performance that’s powerfully emotional yet never resort to histrionics.
He gets good support from Keira Knightley and Jennifer Jason Leigh as love interest and concerned doctor respectively. Knightley is an actress I can usually take or leave but she really impressed me here and Leigh gives her usual strong performance. Only Kris Kristofferson seems a little out of place as the doctor whose experiment sends Brody into the future.
Director John Maybury never allows style to overshadow the characters but still presents a visually impassive film that reminded me a little of Darren Aronofsky’s work in the way it puts character and imagery over plot.
It’s fitting that such an unconventional film should have a score by Brian Eno and the music legend doesn’t let the side down, providing a soundtrack that’s at times creepy and at other heart-warming but never predictable.
The Jacket was far better than I’d expected and the sort of SF none-SF fans would enjoy.
