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| In 1991 Jack Starks, a U.S. Marine Sergeant serving in the Persian Gulf War, receives a near-fatal gunshot wound to the head. Although he recovers, the incident leaves him with shock-related amnesia. After his release, with nowhere to go, Starks, who has no relatives, returns to his native Vermont.
Nine months later, hitchhiking along a snowbound Vermont highway, Starks encounters a broken down pick-up truck. The driver, a drunken, disoriented mother named Jean, and her eight-year-old daughter, Jackie, are stranded at the roadside. With Jean too drunk to speak with him, Starks approaches Jackie and offers his help and gets the truck started.
Starks continues hitchhiking, and is picked up by a station wagon driven by a young man headed for the Canadian border. Shortly afterward, the car is pulled over by the police and Starks blacks out. When he awakens, he finds himself on trial for murder in a small town court.
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Here's what our members thought of this title. 5 stars = very good, 1 star = poor.
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A mind-bending thriller starring Oscar winner Adrien Brody, The Jacket is part fantasy, part drama, all thriller.
After recuperating from a gunshot wound to the head, Gulf War veteran Jack Starks (Brody) returns to his native
Vermont suffering from amnesia. When he is accused of murdering a police officer and committed to a mental institution,
a physician, Dr. Becker (Kris Kristofferson), puts him on a controversial treatment regimen in which Starks is injected
with experimental drugs, confined in a straight-jacket, and locked for extended periods in the body drawer of the basement
morgue. In his drugged and disoriented state, Starks' mind propels him into the future, where he meets Jackie (Keira Knightley),
and discovers that he is destined to die in four days. Together, they search for a way to save him from his fate…
As hopeful as it is harrowing, The Jacket delivers an uncommon blend of romance, murder mystery and time travel fantasy, a movie that
defies categorisation - which is precisely what drew director John Maybury to the project. "What interested me about it is that was kind
of genre-less," says Maybury. "In a way, different audiences impose a genre on the film. I hope no one comes up with a label for it because
for me, the fact that it slips between the cracks of various genres makes it interesting as an experience."
The story behind the scenes begins with a call the director could hardly believe. "I got a call from somebody claiming to be Steven Soderbergh
which I didn't believe," Maybury recalls. "But when they called back and insisted that it really was Steven Soderbergh, I kind of believed him."
Eager to work with Maybury, Soderbergh and producing partner George Clooney sent him the screenplay for The Jacket. "It was the first script I'd
read from cover to cover in a long time," remembers Maybury.
For the director, taking the time to select talented, versatile actors for even the smallest roles gives him confidence to allow his cast the
freedom to explore and take risks as they hone their performances. "I love working with actors, and I like to give them the chance to do what
they do best," he explains. "And the performances in this film are sensational. That's across the board, not just the stars. The day players,
and even some of the extras, do things that are kind of unexpected."
For the lead role of tormented war veteran Jack Starks, Maybury chose Adrien Brody, winner of the 2002 Best Actor Academy Award for his performance
in Roman Polanski's The Pianist - making him the youngest person to ever receive the honour. Prior to The Jacket, Brody was already well known to
Steven Soderbergh, who cast the young Brody in his 1993 film King of the Hill. "Adrien isn't your archetypal heroic leading man," says Maybury,
"but what he brings is an interesting, enigmatic quality to the role. And because he's not the stereotypical hero, there's a more of an edge and
more danger to that character, which makes the character's silences much richer and denser. It's what he doesn't say that's interesting."
Brody describes why he was drawn to the part, "What I've done when choosing work," he says, "is to try to find things that continually challenge
me and explore different aspects of human nature - either things I have experienced, or that I may not know about. To me, Jack Starks is a clean
slate. The role is about who the character is, not where he is from and what his heritage is. Starks is searching for his identity, but is not
bound to his past."
Brody admits that the character's psychological journey was a revelation to him. "Being in a mental institution when he is not insane, but is treated
as if he is, and the realization that his experiences there could drive him insane, was shocking to me," he says. "It gave me a greater understanding
of how helpless so many people are, as victims of a system which controls them and keeps them down, whether in the military or mental institutions or
being incarcerated by poverty." He adds, "There is a possibility that a lot of what happens to Starks is what he sees in those moments before he died
- as life flashes before him - elements of the life he led, or the life he wished he had led. But to me, Starks has to live as if, bizarre as it may
seem, all these things are happening."
Like Maybury, Brody was intrigued by the film's absence of a distinct genre identity. "The Jacket can't easily be defined," he says. "There are
fascinating elements - a love story, drama, and moments of horror. It's not a happy story; it's tormented with surreal moments, but in the end it
is an amazing love story. Every man wants to have a woman like Jackie by his side - someone who supports you, but at the same time, you can solve
their problems and make their life beautiful..."
© 2005 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.
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