The Jacket

As films like Donnie Darko and The Butterfly Effect are still nestled in the colletive consciousness, now comes The Jacket, yet another stab at a unique time-travel story. This one places Adrien Brody as an unfortunate sort who suffers a lot of head traumas and gets his sorry ass stuck in a morgue drawer wearing a straightjacket. The result of his meds and isolation may or may not result in time travel, where he gets to go into the future and have sex with Keira Knightley. That’s as good a reason for time travel that I can think of. Brody is Jack Stark, a Gulf War veteran who takes a bullet in the head at the beginning of the movie. His narrating voice tells us that this marked the first time he died, which doesn’t make much sense, because he doesn’t die; he survives. He gets back to decent physical shape but winds up with amnesia, the first sign that screenwriter Massy Tadjedin’s script might be a little trite.