In some ways, "The Jacket" feels as confining as the restraining device that gives this thriller its name, and it's definitely as misguided as its main character.
Despite having the always likable Adrien Brody in that role, the film never engages the audience. It seems unsure of exactly what it's trying to say, as if its focus was changed by the studio to make it more audience-friendly. (A rather unconvincing romance is the prime example.)
Brody stars as Jack Starks, a Gulf War veteran who's been convicted of murdering a highway patrolman. But since he's suffering from a head injury (sustained in the fighting), Jack is sent to a mental institution instead of prison.
There he continues to plead his innocence, so the institution's director (Kris Kristofferson) pumps him full of drugs, straps him into a straitjacket and slams him into a morgue drawer.
Apparently, this is some sort of sensory deprivation experiment, with the confined space forcing Jack to relive his actions and come to terms with them. Instead, it apparently frees Jack from the constraints of time, where he meets up with Jackie (Keira Knightley), the now-grown-up version of a girl he met before his murder conviction.
According to her, he's supposed to die back in the past. And when he returns there, he's got just four days to discover how and why he died.
Credit Brody for making some of this hokum more believable than it should be. He's certainly more convincing than Knightley, who's apparently, unsuccessfully, trying to copy the gothic vibe of early Winona Ryder performances. And the intimation of a romantic relationship between her character and Brody's is more than a little creepy, considering that they met when he was an adult and she was a child.
This style-heavy film also has too many things in common with such other movies as the 1990 Tim Robbins film "Jacob's Ladder" and last year's like-minded "The Butterfly Effect."
Still, at least "The Jacket" stars Brody instead of Ashton Kutcher.
"The Jacket" is rated R for strong scenes of violence (shootings, some fisticuffs and explosive mayhem), drug content (use of sedatives and hypodermic needles), occasional use of strong profanity and crude slang terms, some brief but graphic gore, a brief sex scene and brief partial female nudity. Running time: 103 minutes.
E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com