US Marine Sergeant Jack Starks (Adrien Brody) receives a gunshot to the head during active service in the Persian Gulf War and subsequently suffers debilitating bouts of shock-related amnesia.

Unable to remain in the forces and without any relatives, Jack returns home to Vermont to recuperate.

Several months later, Jack is arrested for murder - a crime he claims he did not commit.

Jack is found not guilty by reason of insanity and he is despatched to Alpine Grove state institution for the criminally insane.

Staff physician Dr Becker (Kris Kristofferson) plies Jack with mind-altering drugs then restrains him in a straitjacket, before locking his patient in a mortuary drawer for hours on end in the hospital basement.

Becker's colleagues, including Dr Hopkins (Steven Mackintosh), are alarmed by this radical treatment but accept their orders.

Left alone in the dark, Jack experiences fractured memories of the war and the death of the police officer on a snowbound Vermont highway.

Past and present splinter and Jack is propelled into the future where he meets emotionally scarred diner waitress Jackie (Keira Knightley). During their time together, Jack realises that he has met Jackie before; she, in turn, reveals that he will die on January 1 - six days hence.

Returning to the present, Jack joins forces with caring medic Dr Lorenson (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to somehow avoid his fate.

The Jacket was filmed on location in Canada and Scotland, including a number of scenes shot at Bangour village hospital in West Lothian and various locations in Ayrshire.

The grim, icy locales perfectly provide an evocative colour-drained palette for director John Maybury (Love Is The Devil), using quick edits and off-kilter camera angles to reflect Jack's mounting paranoia and confusion.

The parallel timelines beg as many questions as they answer but Maybury manages to conceal some of the plot holes (and a perplexing, upbeat ending) behind a strong cast.

Brody is compelling as a man forced to live in darkness and Knightley finally casts off her English rose waif image to deliver a performance of substance.

Kristofferson and Jason Leigh's warring doctors are slaves to the plot rather than fully-fledged characters but both actors make an impact.

As so often in these kinds of films, the enigma is far more tantalising than the solution.

Updated: 09:22 Friday, May 13, 2005