Release Date: September 24, 1999
Starring: Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones, Bruce Greenwood, Annabeth Gish, Spencer Treat Clark, Roma Maffia, Davenia McFadden
Directed by: Bruce Beresford
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
MPAA Rating: R (language, a scene of sexuality, some violence)
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution contains the provision that no person should be "subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb," affording citizens, in the best English of eighteenth century statesmen, protection from being tried for the same crime twice. Commonly known as the double jeopardy clause, it's the key point in Driving Miss Daisy director Bruce Beresford's suspense thriller of the same name. A woman, framed by her husband for his own death, learns she can exact her revenge without penalty.
The woman is Libby Parsons (Ashley Judd), the husband is Nick Parsons (Bruce Greenwood), the man between them is parole officer Travis Lehman (Tommy Lee Jones), and everything that transpires to bring them together for two hours is an imaginative but implausible rearrangement of the goings-on in 1993's The Fugitive. Whereas that film had enough class to dispense with the set-up via a quick-and-easy prologue segment, Double Jeopardy drags it out for a half hour or more. Director Beresford almost suicides the whole thing in its opening moments.
We're introduced to Libby and Nick, a loving couple with an adorable five-year-old son named Matty (Spencer Treat Clark). Leaving him in the care of Libby's friend Angie (Annabeth Gish), the two take a weekend vacation on a newly-purchased sailboat, things seemingly perfect. They're anything but, however, when Libby awakes to find herself covered in Nick's blood, and holding the murder weapon when the Coast Guard happens upon the drifting craft.
Convicted of murder and sentenced for ten years, Libby learns of the double jeopardy clause while behind bars and begins to track Nick down. To her horror, she finds that he and Angie are now living together with Matty, giving her all the motive she needs to use the relative freedom of her parole to find Nick and settle an old score. Enter Tommy Lee Jones as the PO with the thankless task of preventing her from offing her husband Old Testament style.
As Lehman, Jones makes the movie watchable. He also contributes to the Fugitive knock off aura that surrounds the entire project, but allowing for that gives Jones the leeway he needs to be everybody's favorite wisecracking sonofabitch. He's got some great kiss-off one-liners, and without his presence, Double Jeopardy would've been a real stinker.
In the lead role, Ashley Judd certainly packs some heat, but she can't lend any spectacular identity to this film. It becomes a senseless repetition of classic chase scenes, with cars collisions and rampant foot chases, and even in some cases goes so far as to reproduce scenes from The Fugitive with harrowing likeness. (The car off the ferry somewhere near the middle is a stretch, but the Mexican standoff near the end is nearly identical.) All in all, it can't escape the unwelcome feeling of déjà vu, and it certainly doesn't help that it begs remembrance of a contemporary classic.
Double Jeopardy has its requisite serving of plot holes as well. Nothing significant is ever made of the fact that Nick did, in fact, frame Libby for his death -- it's simply accepted and acted upon. Also, whether or not this use of the double jeopardy clause would stand up in court is doubtful (though one must allow for the legal wizardry of an O.J. Simpson-caliber defense team). Finally, for a mean-talking s.o.b., Jones' parole officer makes some rather amateurish mistakes, allowing the plot to proceed where it otherwise would've stalled. The David Weisberg and Douglas Cook script is no great accomplishment.
The missteps in Double Jeopardy will be most obvious to almost anyone who watches it, and so, rather than suffering through this longish two-hour melee, it's probably best to find something better at Blockbuster. The Fugitive, perhaps.
all contents © 1999 Craig Roush