THE JACKET (2004)

Directed by John Marbuy. Starring: Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson, Kelly Lynch, Jennifer Jason Leigh Mackenzie Phillips. Drama/Sci Fi Synopsis: A Gulf War veteran who believes that he has already died and is the guinea pig in a secret scientific experiment that allows him to experience time travel as he has met a young girl by chance and soon after meets her again as a grown woman with whom he is in love

The Jacket is one of those films that is almost impossible to describe or review with any intelligence unless you have a lot of time. So, in the interest of the precious time that 'net surfers have, I will get right to the point.

Its really good. 

Oh, you want just a little bit more than that? Ah, yeah, I can see where you're coming from on that. O.k., I'll give it a shot.

The film starts with Marine Jack Starks (Adrien Brody) in Kuwait in the Gulf War, where he is shot in the head by a child...as the narration of Starks tells us, this was the first time he died.  Well, when you get that scene and narration in the first two minutes of the film, you know it's going to be different...and a little challenging.

Next, we see Jack walking down the country back roads of his native Vermont-apparently recovered, we're not sure, but this is part of the story. Jack meets a young girl and her intoxicated mother (Kelly Lynch Road House) broken down by the side of the road and gets them going. Jack's Good Samaritan act is not returned by the next guy who he meets while hitch hiking. This young cuss gets pulled over by a cop, shots the cop and frames Jack for the murder. Jack, who is not impressing folks that his bread is quite done, gets sent to an institution for the criminally insane, where he is put under the care of a hard bitten doctor (Kris Kristofferson), his borderline sadistic nurse (Mackenzie Phillips), and a sympathetic therapist (Jennifer Jason Leigh) .

O.k., to make a long story short, Kris is more into the punitive thing than the rehabilitation, so he has Jack put in a corpse drawer for hours on end. Sounds ugly, but its funny, when Jack is in the drawer (referred to, as you might guess, as the jacket due to his being tied completely down) a funny thing happens....he is out and about and walking around again. Its not long after that that he meets a young woman (Keira Knightley) who is, in fact, the young girl who Jack just met recently..in his mind. But she is years older and her mother is deceased.

Well, there is quite a bit to chew on here, but the big question is "what's happening?" Is Jack really in the present or is he really in that jacket in the year 1992? Or is it both? I must say that I don't think the point of this film is to play on all of the delicious riddles that come with time travel stories. They are there, particularly when Jack meets his doctor and therapist in 2004, posing as Jack Stark's "uncle", as the real Jack Starks is deceased. But I think the main point is what Jack tries to do with his life with the knowledge he has. For those of you who love "open endings" to films that give you the opportunity to figure it all out, The Jacket is the mother of all open endings. There are several ways you could go.

The acting is brilliant. Adrien Brody (The Village, Oxygen) is superb in the incredibly difficult role of Jack. Jennifer Jason Leigh should patent the role of the big hearted, but flawed and vulnerable, character because no one does it better. I have never seen Kristofferson this evil and I loved it. And it was nice to see Mackenzie Phillips (One Day at a Time) though I must admit that I did not realize it was her until the special features. (Which are excellent, by the way.)

Keira Knightley is really good in not getting blown off the screen by Brody, who has the talent to make the others disappear. I'm not damning her with faint praise, either. This British actress scores-big time- in the role as the hard bitten rural girl who believes Jack when no one else does.

The only drawback for me was that, for a film set in New England, you don't hear that accent at all. I'm no native, but four years in New England did educate my ear to the regional dialect and the actors, as far as I could tell, didn't even try it. But, that's small potatoes for an excellent and thought provoking film.

Don't you think?