Written by: Susan Granger
http://www.susangranger.com

From the theatrical Coming Attractions, I assumed this was a gothic horror picture. It is. But it has a time-traveling metaphysical twist that's both
exciting and thought-provoking.

Gaunt Adrien Brody, who won an Oscar for "The Pianist," stars as Jack Starks, a Marine who was 27 years old when he was shot in the head by an Arab kid during the Gulf War back in 1992. Pronounced dead, Starks was rushed to a hospital when a medic saw him blink. Then, still shell-shocked, he was sent home to Vermont with retrograde amnesia. Which explains why he can't remember much when a policeman is killed by the driver (Brad Renfro) of a car in which he'd hitched a ride. As a result, he's sent Apine Grove Psychiatric Hospital for the criminally insane.

Medicated into a stupor, Starks is routinely tormented, tortured and
traumatized by a sadistic psychiatrist (Kris Kristofferson) who confines him in
a straight-jacket, straps him to a metal slab and stuffs him into a morgue
drawer for hours at a time. This cruel, claustrophobic "behavior modification"
technique not only spurs him to recall a drugged-out mother (Kelly Lynch) and
her young daughter whom he helped when their car broke down but also,
mysteriously, catapults him ahead to 2007, when the now-grown daughter (Keira
Knightley) is working in a roadside diner.

Avante-garde British director John Maybury ("Love Is the Devil") cleverly
constructs the harrowing visuality of Massy Tadjedin's Kafka-esque screenplay,
based on a story by Tom Bleeker and Marc Rocco that inevitably evokes memories
of "12 Monkeys."

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Jacket" is a
mesmerizing, mind-bending 8. It's a deeply unsettling, chillingly surreal
psychological thriller.

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