Double Jeopardy A Review by Stephen Sills Rated R (language, some violence, and a sex scene)
"Double Jeopardy" is terminally dumb -- it's probably the most insultingly lazy and contrived screenplay of the year. Its relatively decent performances saved it from my own personal sub-two-star hell, but just barely.
The film -- as you no doubt have learned from its trailer, which gives away too much of the plot -- is about a woman (Ashley Judd) who is wrongly convicted of her husband's murder. While in prison, she learns that he is alive, and had in fact framed her for the murder. According to the movie, she has every right in the world to kill her husband once she is released because of the double jeopardy law, which states that you cannot be convicted twice for the same crime. As such, she plans to do just that if he won't give her their son.
Once released, she is sent to a half-way house for women, and placed under the authority of a strict parole officer (Tommy Lee Jones). She escapes in attempt to carry out her plans, and he goes after her; of course they end up forming a sort of alliance near the end.
If it sounds like a blatant and shameless rip-off of "The Fugitive," it is -- it's just not nearly as good. For one thing, the underlying premise is absurd. I'm no legal expert, but wouldn't the murder that she was framed for and any subsequent murders be counted as different crimes, even if they involved the same victim? If you spent time in jail for robbing a house, would you then be able to, once released, rob that house again without fear of prosecution because you had already done so? Of course not, but it makes about as much sense as this film's plot. And anyway, even if that isn't the case, I doubt she could explain the situation and get an "Oh... okay" reaction from a judge.
Other major problems pepper the narrative. Her husband changes his name several times, but the state officially declares him to be dead. Wouldn't the fact that he is supposed dead pose a few problems during a name change procedure?
In one of the most ludicrously contrived scenes that I've ever seen, her husband shuts her in a coffin and leaves her for dead, even though she mentioned earlier that she had a gun on her. Of course she uses the gun to shoot off the coffin's hinges and escape. Why didn't he just kill her? Or at least take the gun away from her before shutting her in?
The direction, by Bruce Beresford ("Driving Miss Daisy"), is almost distractingly generic, if that makes sense. He shoots the film like a Lifetime-movie-of-the-week, and the sad thing is that I've actually seen better movies than this on Lifetime.
The performances are pretty good, though, and they make the film watchable. Although he isn't given much to do, Tommy Lee Jones is excellent as usual -- even if he is playing essentially the same character that he did in "The Fugitive." Ashley Judd is also great; she gives her character's plight a sense of pathos that is totally of her own doing; I doubt it's anywhere to be found in the script.
All-in-all, and despite the good acting, this movie is a loser. If you're really in the mood for a brainless thriller, this may fit the bill, but you could probably do better by randomly picking up any other cassette on the shelf. It's disgusting that a piece of by-the-numbers, uninspired rubbish like this can rake in more money than "American Beauty," while a masterpiece like "Boiler Room" can come and go in two weeks.
** out of ****
3/8/00
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