Thought-provoking cinema a rarity

September 25, 2006 —

I just watched The Jacket for the first time this week. My initial reaction was, "Wow, that was not the movie that I expected." I guess I went into this one a bit naive. For some reason, I thought this was an indie horror flick about - heck I don't even know. I was just looking for a good thrill.

What I got instead was a head full of questions.

Instead of being a relatively unknown horror movie, The Jacket was a well-crafted psychological thriller much different from anything else I've watched recently.

This wasn't your typical good guy versus bad guy premise. It's a movie about battling inner demons, insanity, memory, and a boatload of other issues.

Despite its bizarre time-warping storyline, I thought the movie was fairly straightforward. Then I looked on the Internet Movie Database and read some user comments about The Jacket. What I found surprised me.

The message board was littered with essay-length posts about the movie, explaining the real meanings behind themes and exploring the mysteries that the movie does not resolve.

I sat for what felt like hours in front of the computer reading countless theories about Adrien Brody's character, Jack Starks, and whether or not he was killed in the Gulf War; killed at all; hallucinating; inventing everything in his mind; and so on.

For the first time since The Sixth Sense, I wanted to re-watch a movie that I had just seen because I was curious about all of the mysteries looming in each scene. This got me thinking - why don't films have this effect more often? Why do I forget most movies 90 minutes after they began?

The sad answer is that there aren't a lot of Jackets out there. Heck, this week I went from watching something that truly made me think to choosing between School for Scoundrels or Jackass Number 2 for my next Vanguard movie review.

Sure, Scoundrels is a pretty good movie, but watching Billy Bob Thornton get his genitals zapped by defibrillator electrodes doesn't exactly engage my mind.

I'm not asking for Doc Hollywood to show proof of his Ph.D. All I'm asking is for a few more titles that are notable for more than just flashy cinematography, bloody deaths, or which actress took off her top. Yeah, The Jacket is guilty of all three of these. But I'll let it slide because the movie has substance.

Then again, if I look up Encino Man on the IMDb, maybe I'll find even more thoughtful, engaging posts than I found about The Jacket. Maybe there was more to Pauly Shore's "buuuuuh-dee" flick than I originally thought. The fault could lie within me, the viewer, for not looking deep enough into movies.

After all, I don't remember laughing once during Encino Man. Maybe if I watched it today I would see it for the brilliant, subtle drama that it is. It might be from 14 years ago, but Brendan Fraser running around California as a defrosted caveman is probably smarter than a lot of the junk Hollywood is putting out there these days.

Unless Martin Lawrence is attached. In that case, meet me in the library to discuss the nuances of Big Momma's House 2.