The Jacket

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After a Gulf War vet named Jack Starks (Adrien Brody) miraculously survives a fatal wound, he finds himself wandering along a road in the midst of winter in Vermont. He finds a mother (Kelly Lynch) and daughter (Laura Marano) stranded on the side of the road with a broken down truck. He helps them out, gets friendly (in an okay way) with the daughter, whose name is Jackie, and goes on his way only to get caught up in a brutal crime. However, due to sufficient amnesia, Jack doesn't end up remembering anything that happens, and is committed after being let off the hook for reasons of insanity.

At this particular asylum, the head doctor Dr. Thomas Becker (Kris Kristofferson) believes that the more brutal the technique, the more effective. With one particularly disturbing sensory deprivation technique, Jack finds he can see into the future by 15 years. Or is he really travelling back and forth between his treatments? Well, the rest would pretty much be spoiler territory, so I'll end it on that note.

The end result is a pretty intense ride, well-acted, and well thought out in it's execution, offering something a little bit new to the time travel sub-genre. The only thing to bear in mind, however, is that this movie is also classified as a horror, considering some of the "treatments" throughout it. There's a slight bit of a 'torture porn" aspect to it, but it's mostly mental torture, not so much physical. It all depends on what makes you squirm, and this movie really likes to play on claustrophobia.

When all said and done, I have to say I mostly enjoyed this movie. Although at times it ends up getting a bit confusing, the ride it takes you along is pretty interesting. I always enjoy when the intensity builds up as the movie goes, with a rather pleasant payoff before the credits start rolling. I like being left thinking about the movie, and at least for myself, this movie accomplished that.

As far as time travel movies go, this was a neat idea, even if it does end up playing games with our psyches rather often. As I say, it's almost torture porn for the mind. But even so, this is one of those titles with a big cast that went over our heads, well worth checking out just to see something a little different. I give it a 3, but it's certainly the higher end of it.

​3/5

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