Dir.
John Maybury, 2005, USA/UK/Germany, 103 mins
Cast:
Adrian Brody, Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Daniel Craig
Over the last few years Section Eight, the production company spear-headed by Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney, has carved itself a niche in the market with original, quirky, beautifully executed studio-backed movies with stellar casts but independent sensibilities. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind , Far From Heaven , Welcome to Collinwood , Insomnia and Ocean's Eleven have all come to our screens thanks to the clout of the two heavy-hitters at the helm. All share the common thread of giving Hollywood backing to first-time or strongly independent directors, enabling them to make the kind of films they want to make, but with the added bonus of top-flight talent and more money than they had previously dared dream of.
The Jacket is no exception, with a British director better known for his more esoteric and experimental movies and a cast boasting Oscar-winners, Oscar-nominees and the hottest in up-and-coming British talent.
Sought out personally by Soderbergh to head the production, Maybury brings an originality and visual flair to the material that is matched in quality only by the outstanding performances of the cast.
Brody plays Jack Starks, a Gulf War I veteran sent home with a gunshot wound to the head and suffering from "retrograde amnesia", following which he is all too soon implicated in a brutal cop-killing which sees him sent to an insane asylum following his trial. So far, so formulaic. But from then on, the sense of deja vous soon evaporates as Jack is pulled into the world of Kristofferson's Dr Becker. The psychiatrist puts him on a controversial new therapy which involves mind-bending experimental drugs and locking the patient in a morgue drawer for hours on end.
It is in the drawer that the film grasps its fantastical elements with both hands as it propels Starks into the future where he encounters Keira Knightley's Jackie and discovers that he is destined to die in just four days' time. As the film flits between 1992 and 2007, Jack's struggle to discover the truth about what happens to him gathers pace, and so does his relationship with the emotionally unstable Jackie.
Brody's performance in the central role is nothing short of spell-binding, by turns hopeful and hopeless, admitting the audience into Starks' terrified mind. Kristofferson is remarkable too, for injecting Becker with a humanity which refuses to play to the cliché of bad-guy doctor.
Similarly, Leigh's intensity and total believability is striking, although it is the kind of excellent supporting performance audiences have come to expect from her. Knightley is a revelation as middle-American trailer-trash. Fearing she would be forever stuck in corsets, Knightley convinced a doubtful Maybury to let her read and no sooner had he heard her than he offered her the job. It is easy to see why.
The key to the film, however, is Maybury's direction and Peter Deming's photography. They succeed in pulling the audience so far into the world that anyone with claustrophobia issues is likely to struggle with sections inside the morgue drawer. The use of close-ups of the characters' eyes and off-kilter angles is essential to the movie's ability to wring the most from the performances of its cast, whilst never distracting from the narrative thrust of the movie.
The Jacket is not without its faults. The plot line at times feels a little clunky, and there is too much emphasis on the love-story which develops far too quickly between Starks and Jackie, but with such assured direction, stunning visuals and bewitching acting performances throughout the ensemble, The Jacket is another excellent addition to the Section Eight slate which can stand shoulder to shoulder with anything they have produced to date.
Oli Lewington
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