Directed by John Maybury Starring: Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson, Jennifer Jason Leigh Review by Melissa R. Mendelson
SYNOPSIS:
The film centers on a wounded Gulf war veteran who returns to his native Vermont suffering from bouts of amnesia. He is hitching and gets picked up by a stranger, things go pear shaped when a cop pulls them over and is murdered by the stranger. The vet. is wrongly accused of killing the cop and lands up in an asylum. A quack doctor prescribes a course of experimental therapy, restraining him in a heavy duty straight jacket-like device, and locks him away in a body drawer of the basement morgue. During course of his treatment he gets flashbacks and visions of his future , where he can foresee he is to die in four days time. The catch is he doesn't know how. Thus commences the classic race against time.
The past lies in black and white, and the future is colorless. Shades of gray hold our present days, and the world is a prism, catching light and darkness. And moments in time paint our life, defining who we are and what we must do.
Destiny walks blind beside us. We never see what lies at the end of the road, but we continue to walk and fall along its path. But what if you could see beyond the walls of your world? What if you could save a life or two?
When death comes for us, it is time to go, but not all of us leave. We awake to another day and wonder that question that haunts us all, “Why are we still here?” And nobody will believe the stories of our life but judge us by our actions, and if we could prove to them that we see more than they know, then everything changes.
What if we saw the future? Would we want to know our fate? How does it all end, and does anyone, will anyone remember us? What if we could change the past? Would we sacrifice ourselves to save another or two?
Time is a funny thing, and we never know how much time we really have. But what if we did? How would we use the hours left? Would we yearn to touch the future once more, say good-bye to the one we love, and write the truth on a piece of paper, telling of things to come? If death touched us once, would we be ready for the end?
In the movie, The Jacket, we meet a man, who died but then came back. His journey had only begun, and the road from the past led straight into the future. With certain death hanging over him once more, he is in a race against time to save a life or two; one of them becoming the woman that he loves. And in his quest to right another’s fate, he touches the lives of those around him, opening their eyes to mistakes they made, risks that needed to be taken, and how precious life really is.
The definition of Drama is feeling your heart and soul. Through movies such as this one, you are swept up in the trials of life, complications that throw you into impossible scenarios, but no matter how high the stakes are or how hard you may fall, it is the struggle that defines you and the legacy that you leave behind. It is the love that is fought for, the life that is surrendered for life, and the humanity to touch the lives of others and to change the world. This is Drama, and movies like The Jacket leaves a powerful message behind, "Live.”
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