Double
Jeopardy (1999)
I
won't waste time writing to much on this film. It ain't
worth it.
When
I was a boy, every school child worth his salt knew
about "Double Jeopardy." That's the amendment to the
Constitution that makes it illegal for the state to
try anyone for the same crime twice. In other words,
the state has one chance to prove you guilty and if
you're found innocent, nothing can overturn that ruling.
Of course, this film uses the loophole that if your
framed for a crime like, for example, killing a man,
and found guilty, then, after your release from prison,
it would be legal to kill that man. and you could not
be tried for the crime again. Trust me, if you did this,
you would not get away with it. It's rather ludicrous.
(Didn't I say I wasn't going to write much?)
The film takes this premise to the extreme and it might
make for an interesting picture if the preview trailer
didn't already tell us 95% of the entire story. There
can be no dramatic tension or interest here, once one
has seen the trailer twice. Then again, it might make
for an interesting picture if it were well scripted,
well acted and masterfully directed too. Alas, it is
not.
The script is written by hacks. It's not just that it's
full of loopholes, it's that it's full of ridiculous
contrivances. The most obvious being that the main character,
played by Ashley Judd, gets out of prison and searches
for her former husband, who framed her for his own murder,
while what she is really wanting is to get her young
son back. So, Hello? Why even deal with the stupid ex
husband? Find the kid, get the kid, tell the husband
"see ya" from far, far, away via cell phone.
Even
worse, Tommy Lee Jones plays a supposedly alcoholic
ex-law professor turned halfway house coordinator who
trails Judd when she violates parole (stupidly - in
another stupid plot contrivance) and instead of going
to look for Judd by assuming she would go look for the
kid, he trails her on her path to the husband. Obviously,
if you wanted Judd, and it was a real movie, you'd go
right for the kid. God this script sucks. Badly, badly
written tripe.
Judd cannot save the film. Her performance aches to
be "strong." She tries so hard but she is not capable
of saving this sludge. Jones is Jones. Nothing new.
Nothing. He phones it in. The rest of the cast are little
known actors who have no choice, apparently, but to
take whatever they are given.
The
worst participant in bringing us the awful film is Bruce
Beresford, a director of some really fine films like
"Driving Miss Daisy" and "Tender Mercies" Beresford
cannot eek a single moment of dramatic tension in the
film. He hasn't made a decent film in the 90's that
I'm aware of. Maybe he should just quit.
"Double
Jeopardy" will probably be championed by small minded,
normal, rather lackluster members of the general populace.
Avoid these people at all costs.
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