Jacob's Ladder (Film Review)

1990 Tri-Star Pictures
Directed by: Adrian Lyne; Written by: Bruce Joel Rubin
Starring: Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, and Danny Aiello
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 113 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 8/10

Jacob, a Vietnam vet, has lost his family to divorce, his youngest son has died, and now he lives with his coworker and lover, Jezzie. Now, he's seeing demons.
The less I say about Jacob's Ladder's plot, the better. As the titular character, Tim Robbins takes his first shot at a major serious role, and knocks it out of the park, thus securing the protagonist spot in The Shawshank Redemption a few years later that would etch his name in cinematic history forever. Robbins has to play a likeable, yet flawed man, and set a baseline for him before the character rather believably goes out of his mind. Adrian Lyne, known for sensual visuals, does some of his best work in that department here, whether its seductively shooting Elizabeth Peña, or presenting top-notch, early 90s music video-style glimpses of the grotesque. He also tamps down Bruce Joel Rubin's worst writing impulses. The flowery screenwriter found the more melodramatic qualities of his script for Ghost wrangled and balanced by comedic director, Jerry Zucker, earlier that year, and here, his more grandiloquent impulses are grounded by the grittier Lyne. Maurice Jarre also returns from scoring Ghost to compose a fittingly terrifying, yet moving soundtrack
Jacob's Ladder is both obvious and full of red herrings as to the true nature of its plot, but if there is one weakness here, it's that the ending doesn't quite hit as hard as it could. The film might work a bit better if that ending was a little more ambiguous. Likewise, the terror here feels almost too muted after 35 years of desensitizing cinema. Still, Jacob's Ladder is a fine film, and a must watch for horror fans, or purveyors of high quality, early 90s imagery.