The Jacket
Warner Independent Pictures (WIP) | Release Date: March 4, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
21
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
The first great film of 2005. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDuane Byrge
Admittedly, The Jacket is not likely to be everyone's cup of tea, but filmmaker John Maybury has forged a mesmerizing mindblower. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneKevin Williams
A gripping drama that will leave thoughtful cinemagoers wrestling with basic Big Questions. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The result is what you might call a mass-audience art film. It doesn't entirely succeed, but it's certainly a change from today's standard mysteries and horror movies. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This movie probably falls within the purview of a "love it/hate it" subgenre of the psychological thriller. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Director John Maybury has a feel for shock rhythms, and he's skillful at keeping you guessing, but after a while you want your questions to cohere into compelling answers, and in The Jacket they don't, quite. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Adrien Brody is cornering the market on roles where he's hunted, haunted and under-nourished. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The Jacket is a confused attempt at headiness that feels like a poor man's "Memento." Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
The director's work is suitably unnerving, but leaves one feeling beaten senseless by reel two. When the hero's well-earned moment of clarity finally arrives, most will likely be too numbed out to care, despite the best efforts of Brody, an actor too vividly alive to be wasting his time playing dead. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Intermittently compelling but unavoidably improbable. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
This kind of gloomy razzle-dazzle isn't everyone's cup of mind-altering tea, but strong performances make it worth the effort to keep the time-tripping shenanigans straight until the surprisingly satisfying payoff. Read full review
60
EmpireKim Newman
A gripping, affecting, strange movie -- but oddly, it's just like too many other gripping, affecting, strange movies we've seen recently. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
Maybury's attempt at a more mainstream movie is really just a simple love story cloaked in a lot of metaphysical mumbo-jumbo. Read full review
50
Film ThreatEric Campos
You'll either walk away with a headache,or praising filmmaker John Maybury for his unique narrative...and it is unique, but in my eyes, it's also a big giant mess. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Though shot for maximum moodiness by the gifted Peter Deming ("Mulholland Drive"), the movie straps you in for a head trip that promises hallucinatory wonders but delivers the same old Hollywood formula with sugar on top. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
It draws you into its grim and mysterious world through the first half of the movie, then falls apart like a house of cards in a hurricane. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
It's pretty stupid, although it's never exactly boring. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
The Jacket is both a genre movie and a symptom, a gothic treatment of Gulf War syndrome. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
You can sense an impulse toward a better film, and Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley certainly take it seriously, but the time-travel whiplash effect sets in, and it becomes, as so many time travel movies do, an exercise in early entrances, late exits, futile regrets. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Memo to screenwriters cranking out murky existential thrillers: Do not have various characters repeat on several occasions: "I know this doesn't make any sense." Read full review
50
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Doesn't really go anywhere or amount to anything - a fatal flaw in a time-travel movie designed not only to keep you guessing, but to build genuine suspense as well. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The acting makes the difference, and in Jacket it rises above the needs of the material. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
Still, the central mystery remains effective and compelling for most of the film, until it becomes clear that it's all image and no intent. Read full review
40
VarietyScott Foundas
A movie as lacking in personality as its amnesiac protagonist. Read full review
40
Village VoiceDennis Lim
A disappointing nosedive into the mainstream for John Maybury, the Derek Jarman acolyte who transitioned successfully from experimental work to features with 1998's hallucinatory Francis Bacon biopic "Love Is the Devil." Read full review
40
The New York TimesDana Stevens
This movie is terribly silly, but it's not completely terrible. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Visually, The Jacket has a lot of flash, but it hardly compensates for the fuzzy story. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Maybury's art-world talents don't include storytelling, and his visceral bursts of fast editing and extreme close-ups don't yield any full-blown characters, narrative, or political vision. Read full review
40
SlateDavid Edelstein
Begins too cruelly and ends too sappily but holds you somewhere between the two extremes until the semisweet finale. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle Smith
The characters are so flat and the dialogue so dull you expect it to be one of those movies whose existence is justified by a big final twist. But it's three days after the screening, and still no twist. Maybe it's coming in the mail? Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
The Jacket is doing nothing but sampling elements of "Jacob's Ladder," "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Memento" without offering more than hackneyed solutions, including a rather cheesy conclusion. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
If claustrophobia's your style, The Jacket is a perfect fit.
25
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
[Brody's] mannered performance helps downgrade this picture from a middling sci-fi film to a bad, borderline-camp sci-fi film. Read full review
25
PremiereGlenn Kenny
As bad movies go, The Jacket belongs to a relatively rare but extremely intriguing/irritating genus. Read full review
20
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
In this case, the adage would go something like "material, material, material," also known as the Nicolas Cage Rule: Good acting can't overcome bad taste. Read full review
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