I'll come back, when you you call me - no need to say goodbye

Our Director Writes:

Diary of a Mature Student: Genetically Modified Santa Time

Okay, so forget Christmas.

Let's talk about The Jacket. (Or, for the Amazon crowd, The Jacket).

I (heart) The Jacket as much as I like using the phrase "I (heart) (x)". (I like using the latter, because old people attempting to use current slang = perpetual fun).

I am unsure exactly how The Jacket managed to fuck up the simple "Make More Money Than The Film Costs" equation - given that, according to reliable sources (well, wikipedia, but it is Christmas Eve and I can't be bothered to do much in the way of research) it took approximately seven million less than it cost to make, which is something normally only reserved for films like Punisher: War Zone.

My question is; why does this make any particular sense? Let's run through the negative points first;

- The storyline is not that easy to follow unless you immediately swallow the concept of time travel via something similar to a Tulpa;

- There's a kind of icky undertone where the main characters meet once when one is very young then again where she's older, and the older versions have "The Sex", although it's only an undertone

- Some of the people involved get hit with the idiot hammer with alarming regularity.

But, seriously, the wattage of the film is strangely immense. You've got:

- Adrien Brody, just pre-King Kong but post The Pianist and The Village;

- Keira Knightley, post-Pirates of the Carribean, King Arthur and Love Actually

- Kris Kristofferson, post the entire Blade trilogy (although given the third film, well...) and pre-... um... nevermind

- Jennifer Jason Leigh, lovely in eXistenZ, also post Road to Perdition, similar to:

- Daniel Craig, post-Layer Cake and Road to Perdition, and just pre-Casino Royale;

- Hell, there's even Reliable Character Actor Brendan Coyle, who you may also remember from Downton Abbey

- And Steven Mackintosh, who's been in oh so so much.

You could base an entire publicity campaign on Brody and Knightley and sell it on that basis alone, and surely it'd take more than $21 million.

But apparently not.

There's a lesson here, kids, although I'm not sure exactly what it is beyond big stars do not necessarily a big film make. So... Draw your own conclusions.

And while you're at it, have a happy seasonal holiday.