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| Directed by Bruce Beresford; Starring Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones, Bruce Greenwood, Annabeth Gist, Roma Maffia, Davenia Brazeau, Gillian Barber, and Benjamin Weir |
It seems that there are generally quite a few directors that shame themselves on a yearly basis. Remember David Lynch’s Lost Highway, Francis Ford Coppola’s Jack, and Michael Cimino’s Desperate Hours, and Oliver Stone’s U Turn? Still I keep on thinking that these names will still surprise me occasionally, but that is not how it is with Bruce Beresford. He made great films like Breaker Morant, Tender Mercies, and Driving Mrs. Daisy, but then he made some atrocities like King David, A Good Man in Africa, and Last Dance. Beresford has only shone when paired with a good cinematographer like Russell Boyd. I think I need not say that I was not expecting much from this new film from Beresford. Though the idea sounded interesting, it looked way too much like a sequel to US Marshals. So the rating I give for Double Jeopardy, though not very high, is better than I thought I’d be giving it.
Double Jeopardy is your normal chase thriller in which a wronged man (in this case a wronged woman) must get free of the police and save their name of the crime they are accused of. Done numerous times by Alfred Hitchcock perfectly, Beresford fails at properly directing this story. There were a few moments of slight levity that I thought really worked, but most of the so-called suspenseful moments were far from that and the sappiness of the story nearly killed me. It is a true crowd pleaser, including the crowd at the screening I was present to. At one point Beresford shows a picture of a small child for sentimental reasons, and the crowd went into “aww’s” and “isn’t he cute?”s. Beresford’s attempts to direct the film like he is doing a riff on The Fugitive with the sensibilities of Driving Miss Daisy. Sure the Daisy thing worked for him once, but it would have been different if Morgan Freeman was a police officer chasing down Jessica Tandy, who has been accused of driving over pedestrians.
Libby Parsons (Judd) is the upper-middle class wife of an art collector and all-around good guy Nick (Greenwood). They seem to be a happy couple with a loving son (Weir) and a seemingly over affectionate best friend (Gish) on a nice little voyage on a sail boat. Then in the night, Libby awakens to find the boat drenched in blood and her husband gone without a trace. The coast guard brings her in and next thing Libby knows she is on trial for murdering Nick. After being sent to prison for murder, it becomes clear to her that Nick is still alive and has taken their friend and son in a new life. In prison she befriends an ex-lawyer that tells Libby of double jeopardy. It seems that if it is true that Nick is still alive, she can kill him and not have to be tried for it having already been tried and convicted for killing him. When released on parole after six years, Libby is sent to a home for women on parole that is headed by Travis Lehman (Jones). After a few events occur, Lehman finds himself on the trail of Libby as she searches for the husband she must kill and the son she must reclaim.
I liked the whole premise, but noticed the many improbabilities of it. Did screenwriters David Weisberg and Douglas Cook never hear of the writ of habeas corpus, where no one can be tried for murder without a body? Evidently not, or else I’m misunderstanding it. All the actors give willing turns to the camera, but only Greenwood comes off well. Judd and Jones both seem to be sitting through this waiting for a nice paycheck. I did like the whole idea of the film and I even thought the climax was not too bad, but the ending was one of the worst of the year. Double Jeopardy is one of the more flawed films this year, but still an admirable attempt from a director that deserved so much contempt.
