The Jacket (2005)

The only other John Maybury film I have seen is "Love is the Devil" (in fact I think it might be the director's only other feature film) and I was not overly taken with that Francis Bacon biopic.  I therefore came to this movie with lowered expectations, especially since the reviews I'd read on its release were very definitely so-so; but I found a complex tale which more than held my interest.  It doesn't bear thinking about the logic too hard, but to accept the time-travelling premise and the concept that it is possible to change the future.  The hero is that intense actor Adrien Brody, who is pronounced dead during the first Gulf War, but who has miraculously returned to life, but with big gaps in his memory.  Accused of a crime he did not commit, he is sent to a psychiatric hospital where doctor Kris Kristofferson is trying out some very unorthodox therapy.  This involves putting the subject in a straightjacket and confining him to a morgue cabinet for varying amounts of time.  While incarcerated there, Brody finds that his mind (and body?) is transported to 2007 (fifteen years in the future) where he meets Keira Knightley, whom he had previously met when she was a child, and where he learns of his own imminent death.  Returning to 1992 with the knowledge of things to come, he is able to alter events and may or may not have been able to escape his second death.  This bit is left vague and it is up to the viewer to resolve the possibilities.  A very apt use of music too in this last scene....