Rating: * * *½ out of * * * *
Starring: Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones, Annabeth Gish, Bruce Greenwood, Michael Gaston.
Rated R for violence, language and some sexuality.
Underrated movies are a common reoccurrence in show business today. 1998's 'Hope Floats' was extremely underrated and was one of the best movies of the year. We always get films that make big money at the box-office but critics and audiences pan on them. This year 'Double Jeopardy' is one of those films. Critics are calling it predictable and worthless, audiences are disappointed with it and think it was a disappointment. But as I viewed 'Double Jeopardy' I found that it was a great movie, it has a surprising sense of humor and a big dose of heart, along with heart-pounding suspense and twists and turns here and there it certainly is a really good movie.
The always wonderful Ashley Judd plays Libby Parsons, a woman with a seemingly normal life: a great loving husband, a beautiful son and a great friend. Her husband Nick Parsons has made a surprise for her and is going to buy her the sailboat she has always wanted. After a night of bliss Libby wakes up in the middle of the night to find blood all over her and all over the sailboat, her husband is missing and there is a bloody knife on deck. Of course being in shock she picks it up and a coast guard comes over and sees her.
However she isn't immediately ceased until they find out his life insurance was worth two-million dollars and they start to wonder rather she killed him for the money. She pleads not-guilty but is found guilty and sent to prison for six years. While making a phone call to her best friend who adopted her son for her and she hears him say hi to his dad, which makes Libby's heart stop right there. She realizes she must get out and prove that he isn't dead, one of her cell-mates tells her that as long as she has been convicted of a crime she cannot be convicted of it again. Which means she can shoot him in the middle of Mardi Gras and they cannot do anything about it.
After she gets out she goes to a halfway house run by parole officer Tommy Lee Jones. He is a man who has had his share of bad things. While out for the day she breaks into a school and tries to track down her kid and husband, leading up to some jaw-dropping twists that are both predictable and not. Whatever happens the film was excellent to me. I found the writing well-written as well as the acting was great. Ashley Judd is such a talented and beautiful actress that she is a hero in a sort in this movie. Even if you know what is going to happen in the end, you don't know how.
This is one of those movies that you really do know what is going to happen, except you don't know how they are going to make it happen. It could be one way or another, it could be this way or that way. The movie is highly stylized and extremely well-made. It gets most of it's power from the two leads: Ashley Judd and Tommy Lee Jones both give excellent performances. The characters are well-realized and believable and we feel Libby's pain when she cannot see her child for 6 years.
Even though a lot of critics didn't like the film, I loved it. The director took his time making the movie, and put a lot of shadowing in the movie. I found it not to be boring at all and it's only flaw comes from some predictability. It moved at a fast pace, has suspense, humor, heart and great acting. It earns it's right to be a great movie and to me that's what it was.
Reviewed by Brandon Herring October 13, 1999. Brandon Herring Movie Review Heaven (http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/movie/3160/moviereviewheaven.html
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews