Product Details

• Actors: Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kelly Lynch
• Directors: John Maybury
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed: French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: June 21, 2005
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (150 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0009G3B0G
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,031 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "The Jacket" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

When you put on The Jacket, prepare for a head-trip into fragmented reality. Coproducer Steven Soderbergh might have fared better with this mind-bender than British director John Maybury (who indulges an excess of heavy-handed "style"), but it's intriguing enough to hold your attention as Gulf War veteran Jack Starks (Adrian Brody) sustains a head-wound that results in amnesia and fragmented timelines. One involves Jack's apparent killing of a policeman, after which he's institutionalized and subjected to straight-jacketed experiments in sensory isolation (with Kris Kristofferson as the doctor in charge); the other is a possible future involving a nihilistic waitress (Keira Knightley) with connections to his past, and the discovery that Jack will die in four days if he can't solve the brain-teasing puzzle he's fallen into. The Jacket aspires to the cleverness of Memento and falls short of that target, but Brody gives this exercise in desperate disorientation a certain gravitas that keeps you watching as his tormenting visions begin to unravel. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brad Renfro and Kelly Lynch make the most of their small supporting roles. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

Academy Award-winner Adrien Brody stars as a Gulf War veteran wrongly accused of murder, and subsequently committed to a mental institution. A controversial treatment regimen sends him on a mind-bending journey into the future, where he can foresee his death - and must try to stop it. Also stars Keira Knightley ("Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2," "Bend it Like Beckham"), Daniel Craig ("Road to Perdition"), Golden Globe-nominated Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kelly Lynch ("Charlie's Angels") and Kris Kristofferson.

DVD Features:
Additional Scenes
Alternate endings:The Jacket: Project History and Deleted Scenes
Featurette:The Look of The Jacket: A Featurette on Special Effects

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 102 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than you would think April 27, 2005

By M. G. Mora

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Maybe it was the advertising that killed this movie in the theatre before it even got a fair chance. I saw this before it was released at the Sundance film festival and knew that it would be a hard one to sell to people not because it wasn't good but because it didn't fit in to a usual Hollywood classification. Sure enough, I was right. They made it look like a horror movie and it is definitely not that. I'd call it a thriller with sci fi overtones. Sort of a Twilight Zone episode if you had to label it.

Great performances by a strong cast plus an interesting plot propel this over most movies that come out in the theatres these days. In some respects it's even better than The Butterfly Effect (which had a simular plot) especially because it has a strong lead where as B.E did not.

Given a chance with different marketing this could have been big. So check it out on DVD now!

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars How did I miss this? July 16, 2006

By Lisa McKinley

Format:DVD

Out of the proverbial left field, this movie ended up in my husband's vast dvd collection. I'd never heard of it. He popped it into the dvd player and I found myself immediately engrossed in the slow unfolding of a wonderfully played tale. This Adrien Brody guy is fascinating to watch; I don't know why I don't hear about him more often (see 'Dummy'). Now, I love myself a good time-travel story, and I think giving you that much information may already be too much, because you should discover it on your own. Also, I am capable of nit-picking my way through an implausible film unmercilessly (see 'Stigmata'), but this story was very easy to swallow, and it was quite engaging. I found myself thinking about it days afterward, which is the hallmark of a good film for me. If you need explosions and big action to keep you in the moment, then this probably isn't for you. But if you can be patient and allow a story to unravel itself through strong characterizations and simple dialogues, I think you will be satisfied.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Much better than the trailer looks... October 2, 2006

By Tim Warneka VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

I must agree with the previous reviewer...the trailer looks like a horror movie, but this is actually a very facinating movie. I'm a complete chicken (don't like horror movies) and I found this movie to be very engrossing. Probably not for everyone (my wife wouldn't like it, I think...), but if you like modern fiction with a twist, this is the movie for you.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Long live the Organization for the Organized! August 5, 2005

By Daniel Jolley HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Here lately, the best way to find the boldest, darkest, most intellectually challenging films is to follow Jennifer Jason Leigh. Having watched The Machinist and The Jacket back to back, I feel a whole lot better about the future of motion pictures than I used to. There are actually scriptwriters and directors out there that are almost as dark and twisted as I am. Of course, The Jacket is primarily a showpiece for Adrien Brody, who gives a marvelous, haunting performance as Jack Starks, an ill-fated man who comes to know the past through the future - it's rather complicated (but it all makes sense in the end).

Starks' problems begin when a little Iraqi kid plugs him in the head as his unit is trying to control a crowd during a combat mission in the Gulf War. He is left for dead and may in fact have died (but I don't want to get into a tricky metaphysical discussion on this point). Then, it's a year later and we see Jack walk down a wintry road and help a woman and daughter get their car started - a seemingly innocuous event but one of great importance in this story. Then Jack bums a ride with a stranger, the car gets pulled over by a policeman, and the next thing Jack knows, he's on trial for killing a cop. No one believes his story, much of which he doesn't remember anyway, and there's no denying the fact that he suffered a serious head injury in the war, so he ends up being confined in a mental institution for the criminally insane. There are definitely some insane people at the institution - unfortunately, some of them are on the staff.

I'm still trying to figure out who told Kris Kristofferson he could act, but he shows up here as Dr. Mengel- uh, I mean Dr. Becker.... His idea of treatment is shooting Jack up with some kind of hallucinatory drug, confining him in a straight jacket (you didn't think the title referred to a Members Only jacket, did you?), and shutting him up in a morgue drawer for hours on end. As a claustrophobic, that gives me all kinds of heebie jeebies, let me tell you. The thing is, though, that Jack starts seeing things while he's stuck in there - fragmented memories come at him a mile a minute, and in time he begins to see the future. He meets up with the little girl (Jackie) he helped earlier in the film (who grew up quite nicely into Keira Knightley) - only it's 2007, which is fifteen years in Jack's future. Actually, you can't really say it's Jack's future because he finds out that he died (or will die) on New Year's Day of 1993. Finding out you're dead is a bit of a shock, of course, so he tries to find out exactly how he died - his only hope to learn the truth is his link to 2007 and Jackie - and he can only see that future world while he is in the jacket and in that dark place. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays a less evil doctor in the institution who comes to share a special bond with Jack (one she is reluctant to accept at first). Hey, it's not easy for a guy in a mental institution to convince one of his doctors that he is seeing the future.

Things get rather complicated, as you might imagine, but the movie handles the time issue wonderfully, and the whole movie really does make perfect sense. Maybe they stretch things a tad at the very end, but it's not a problem. The Jacket isn't for everyone; it's too dark and mysterious to satisfy those looking for pure entertainment. For the serious-minded viewer who loves dark sojourns into the depths of human thought and possibilities, however, The Jacket is a movie you'll be telling all of your like-minded friends about. Read more ›

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good movie that starts off a bit slowly January 20, 2007

By Monte Farber & Amy Zerner

Format:DVD

I bought this movie after I saw it on HBO because it was so good that I wanted to have it in my collection. It starts off slow and depressing and I almost gave up on it but I'm glad I didn't because it is a superior movie, well worth buying and watching. I don't want to tell you anything about it because that's how I saw it and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Film! December 12, 2005

By Perry Black

Format:DVD

The preview trailers for THE JACKET made the film look like another Hollywood horror movie (heavy on movie stars and bloated budgets... but very weak on any actual "horror") so I stayed away from this one when it was in theaters.

Then I saw this DVD... and I was absolutely blown away. I'm a big horror movie fan, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that THE JACKET is not really a horror film. Instead, it is a very intelligently-written, extremely well-acted, and beautifully photographed love story with an intriguing sci-fi edge.

Adrian Brody (who starred in one of the best films of the past ten years, THE PIANIST) stars with Keira Knightley (who starred in one of the worst movies of the past ten years, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN) and their on-screen chemistry forms the backbone of THE JACKET. Brody, again, proves he is one of the best actors working today. Knightly proves she is a much better actress than PIRATES would lead you to believe. Not to mention she is absolutely gorgeous. Kris Kristofferson is also a highlight of THE JACKET's cast, creating an incredibly real and dynamic character who walks a thin line between good guy and bad guy.

Director John Maybury has been jabbed at for being heavy-handed and over-indulgent with his "style" in THE JACKET... but c'mon, people... this is a MOVIE. Last time I checked, movies were a VISUAL medium. If you don't want creative, stylistic visuals, read a book or go see a play. In my opinion, Maybury's often criticized visual style gave much atmosphere to THE JACKET, creating a captivating environment for the viewer to be drawn into. I enjoy movies that are far more stylized than THE JACKET (like BEGOTTEN, NATURAL BORN KILLERS, AMELIE, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, Coppola's DRACULA, etc....) so, by comparison, THE JACKET didn't seem all that over-the-top visually to me. But I thought Maybury's visual style was one of the strongest aspects of the film.

Producers Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney wanted to give an art film director a proper Hollywood budget and THE JACKET was the result. A poor marketing effort kept many from seeing this film in theaters, and perhaps the American filmgoers - bloated from a steady unhealthy diet of typical Hollywood big-budget garbage - just couldn't get into a movie with a unique artistic flair. In the end, THE JACKET was a financial failure. It is unlikely that such a substantial budget will be put behind such an artistic film again anytime soon. So pick up THE JACKET on DVD and enjoy. The movie is a rare example of what Hollywood SHOULD be making. Read more ›