The Jacket (2005)
Average Rating: 5.5/10
Reviews Counted: 159
Fresh: 70 | Rotten: 89
The Jacket is a case of creepy style over substance.
Average Rating: 5/10
Critic Reviews: 35
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 24
The Jacket is a case of creepy style over substance.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 78,084
Movie Info
A troubled war veteran tries to unlock his memories of a terrible crime in this stylish thriller, the first American project for British filmmaker John Maybury. In 1991, Jack Starks (Adrien Brody) was an American soldier serving in the Persian Gulf when he was shot in the head; pronounced dead by a field surgeon, Starks somehow returned to life, though with no small number of psychological problems to show for his troubles. A year later, Starks is walking through the snowy Vermont wilderness
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Adrien Brody
Jack Starks -
Keira Knightley
Jackie Price -
Kris Kristofferson
Dr. Becker -
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Dr. Lorenson -
Daniel Craig
Mackenzie -
Kelly Lynch
Jean -
Laura Marano
Young Jackie -
Brad Renfro
Stranger -
Mackenzie Phillips
Nurse Harding -
Brendan Coyle
Damon -
Steven Mackintosh
Dr. Hopkins -
Jason Lewis
Police Officer -
Jonah Lotan
Intern
ADVERTISEMENT
All Critics (168) | Top Critics (37) | Fresh (70) | Rotten (89) | DVD (28)
The acting is uniformly excellent.
Top CriticIt just bounces Brody back and forth in time and yanks us around, and around, and around.
The Jacket is doing nothing but sampling elements of Jacob's Ladder, The Silence of the Lambs and Memento.
Here, Maybury is just arty for art's sake, filming entire scenes in close-ups so big that viewers leave the theater knowing way more than they ever wanted to about the lead actors' bridgework.
Pic begins as a potentially intriguing study of the depersonalizing effects of warfare, only to end up a pastiche of time-travel and psycho-ward movie cliches.
It suffers from a common thriller syndrome these days: the desire to explain away madness with logic.
Smart thriller is for mature older teens only.
Maybury is an artist in addition to a director and it's clear that he has an eye for colour, which he uses cleverly to reinforce emotion.
A morose and bleached-looking affair, with depressing music by Brian Eno to match.
There's nothing wrong with a little vicarious experience when you go to the movies, but the director seems to think that his supernatural psycho thriller has to drive you crazy, just to get what it's like to be really insane.
A solid attempt to wrestle with some big questions. The cast is exemplary and the premise and script are well reasoned and artful. But it doesn't quite come together.
Tadjenin seems to draw inspiration from two books: "10 ways to copy 12 Monkeys" --a far inferior read to "10 ways to write 12 Monkeys"-- and "Common Sense: A Stranger"
As incoherent as it is enjoyable, The Jacket hits the marks that it set out to, yet leaves the audience a bit cold with its squeaky clean ending.
The only real scares here take place as images in Brody's head when he hallucinates under Dr. Becker's treatment. The rest of the film has a somewhat sappy quality to it and doesn't deliver any suspense or thrills of any kind.
film whose quality defies its script
Conta com conceitos interessantes, embora demore um pouco mais do que deveria para revelá-los para o espectador.
Ambitious-verging-on-pretentious screenplay adroitly lensed by a director with impressive formal command.
It doesn't wash - they just end up with hogwash...
What we get is mostly a convoluted tale that tries hard to seem far more important than it is. In fact, it's all rather banal and sentimental.
Part of the fun with twisty time-travel movies is in trying to figure out what's going on and The Jacket delivers nicely on that score, keeping you guessing till the end.
By basic definition a time-travel yarn, but to say that is to make this rather turgid drama sound more interesting than it is.
Ultimately it doesn't amount to much, but like Starks' drug-induced trip, The Jacket is about the journey not the destination.
Brody was over-qualified for this part.
The story goes back and forth into the future and then the past and is very disturbing. This is an interesting premise but a little too crazy for me.
This patchwork of horror, time travel, romance, medical and war drama with a thriller through-line suggests an unfortunate case of too many designers in the atelier.
A fresh, fun science-lesson for the noggin.... Brody is solid
Audience Reviews for The Jacket
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Movies Like The Jacket
-
- Jack Starks: Sometimes life can only really begin with the knowledge of death.
-
- Jack Starks: Sometimes I think we live through things only to be able to say that it happened.
Discussion Forum
What's Hot On RT
New Desolation of Smaug trailer!
Naomi Watts is Princess Di
The Hangover 3, The Purge, and More
Trailer for a squirrely heist flick
See what's on TV tonight
Latest News on The Jacket
June 20, 2008:
RT Interview: Keira Knightley on Welsh Accents and Life After PiratesBritain's hottest young actress tells RT why supporting homegrown films is important as she talks...
February 13, 2007:
Adrien Brody in the Running for "Hulk" Sequel?It's just another piece of casting gossip at this point, but I found it amusing enough to spread...
October 14, 2005:
It's Official: Daniel Craig is 007ComingSoon.net shares with us the long-in-coming announcement, and it's one that shouldn't stun any...
Fresh Links
Featured
Halloween Movies For Wimps
Scary movies too scary for you? Here are some alternatives for October 31st.
10 Best Superhero TV Shows
HitFix combs through TV history to compile a superpowered list.
Ridiculous Movie Mistakes
RollingStone proves even the best movies miss a details here and there.
Deadly Movie Kids
Moviefone lists 11 Movie Kids Who Could Kick Our Asses.
50 States, 50 Movies
For July 4th, TimeOut has compiled 50 state-specific movie choices.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
Featured on RT
- Primetime Preview: Supernatural, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and More 0
- RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: The Hangover Part III, The Purge, and More 11
- Primetime Preview: Beauty and the Beast, Sleepy Hollow and More 0
- NYFF: Joaquin Phoenix and James Gray talk The Immigrant 2
- Box Office Guru Wrapup: Gravity Stuns with Record $55M Launch 80
- Primetime Preview: Witches of East End, Once Upon a Time and More 4
- Weekly Ketchup: Disney Plans Live Action Cruella de Vil Movie 37
Top Headlines
-
Fox Animated Series, ABC Comedies Tumble in Sunday Ratings
0
-
Bong Joon-ho Reportedly "Furious" About Snowpiercer Cuts
0
-
Record-Setting Number of Films Competing in Foreign-Language Oscar Race
0
-
Woody Allen Cancels Blue Jasmine's India Premiere
1
-
Lionsgate Wants Gary Ross and Jennifer Lawrence's Burial Rites
1
-
ABC Plans Kevin Hart-Inspired Series
0
-
The Shining's Danny Torrance Is All Grown Up
1
