The Jacket
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| The Jacket | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | John Maybury |
| Screenplay by | Massy Tadjedin |
| Story by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Peter Deming |
| Edited by | Emma E. Hickox |
| Music by | Brian Eno |
Production companies | |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $28.5 million[2] |
| Box office | $21.1 million[3] |
The Jacket is a 2005 American science-fiction psychological thriller film directed by John Maybury and starring Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson and Jennifer Jason Leigh. It is partly based on the 1915 Jack London novel The Star Rover, published in the United Kingdom as The Jacket.[4] Massy Tadjedin wrote the screenplay based on a story by Tom Bleecker and Marc Rocco. The original music score is composed by Brian Eno and the cinematography is by Peter Deming.
The Jacket premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2005, and was released in theaters in the United States by Warner Independent Pictures on March 4, 2005. It grossed $21.1 million on a budget of $28.5 million and received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot[edit]
Gulf War veteran Jack Starks (Brody), having suffered a near-death experience while on active service, returns to Vermont in 1992, suffering from periods of amnesia.
Back in the United States, he is blamed for the death of a policeman and incarcerated in a hospital for the criminally insane. Subject to experimental treatments there, which involve him being shut inside a morgue casket while tied in a straitjacket, he eventually learns to travel through time and is able to offer help to various people.
Cast[edit]
- Adrien Brody as Jack Starks
- Keira Knightley as Jackie Price
- Laura Marano as Young Jackie
- Kris Kristofferson as Dr. Thomas Becker
- Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dr. Beth Lorenson
- Kelly Lynch as Jean Price
- Brad Renfro as The Stranger
- Daniel Craig as Rudy Mackenzie
- Steven Mackintosh as Dr. Hopkins
- Brendan Coyle as Damon
- Mackenzie Phillips as Nurse Hardling
- Jason Lewis as Officer Harrison
- Richard Dillane as Captain Medley
- Jonah Lotan and Angel Coulby as Interns
- Paul Birchard as Doctor
- Nigel Whitmey as Lieutenant
- Ian Porter as Major
- Anthony Edridge as Dr. Morgan
- Kerry Shale as Prosecutor
- Angus MacInnes as Judge
- Richard Durden as Dr. Hale
- Tristan Gemmill as Officer Nash
- Colin Stinton as Jury Foreman
- Tara Summers as Nurse Nina
- Angelo Andreou as Babak
- Teresa Gallagher as Nurse Sally
- Anne Kidd as State Representative
- Charneh Demir as Jamite
- Frances Brady-Stewart as Woman with Dog
- Lolly Susi as Nurse
- Garrick Hagon as Defense Lawyer
- Fish as Jimmy Fleisher
Background[edit]
The Jacket shares its title, and the idea of a person experiencing extra-corporeal time-travel while in an intolerably tight straitjacket, with a 1915 novel by Jack London. The novel was published in the United Kingdom as The Jacket and in the United States of America as The Star Rover. Director Maybury has said that the film is "loosely based on a true story that became a Jack London story".[4] The true story is that of Ed Morrell, who told London about San Quentin prison's inhumane use of tight straitjackets.[5]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
The Jacket opened on March 4, 2005, and grossed $2,723,682 (~$4.08 million in 2023) on opening weekend, with a peak release of 1,331 theaters in the United States. The film went on to gross $6,303,762 domestically, for a total of $21,126,225 worldwide.[3]
Critical response[edit]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 44% of 162 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "The Jacket is a case of creepy style over substance."[6] On Metacritic, it had a score of 44% based on reviews from 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[7]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it two out of four stars and wrote: "You can sense an impulse toward a better film, and Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley certainly take it seriously, but the time-travel whiplash effect sets in, and it becomes, as so many time travel movies do, an exercise in early entrances, late exits, futile regrets."[8]
See also[edit]
- La Jetée, a 1962 French science fiction featurette in which sensory deprivation and strong memories lead to time travel.
References[edit]
- ^ Goodridge, Mike (24 January 2005). "The Jacket". Screen International. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
- ^ "The Jacket (2005) - Financial Information". The Numbers.
- ^ a b "The Jacket (2005)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
- ^ a b Clarke, Donald (13 May 2005). "Full Mental Jacket". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2009. Quotes director Maybury: "'I know you think it is a load of Hollywood nonsense,' he says amiably, 'but it is in fact loosely based a true story that became a Jack London story.'"
- ^ Morrell, Ed. (2018). The 25th Man: The Strange Story of Ed. Morrell, the Hero of Jack London's Star Rover. Forgotten Books. ISBN 978-0243119004.
- ^ "The Jacket (2005)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
- ^ "The Jacket Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (3 March 2005). "Contrived 'Jacket' wears you out". Chicago Sun-Times.
