Double Jeopardy, 1999

Double Jeopardy, 1999
Director:Bruce Beresford
Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Ashley Judd, Bruce Greenwood


Stage: Home TV selection

Double Jeopardy in short: A woman framed for her husband's murder suspects he is still alive; as she has already been tried for the crime, she can't be re-prosecuted if she finds and kills him.

Preps: Remembering I have seen this one a while ago, and I liked it. Since it's a Thursday evening and I don't feel like going anywhere, I think this is a good selection.


Reality:
The movie is a good setup of betrayal/vengeance/lost love/prison charm. Ashley is playing an innocent (maybe naive?)framed wife, that sits her sentence for a few years for a crime she didn't commit. Finds herself among other cons being tutored what she's supposed to do. Finds out she can kill her husband (who is still living and for whose murder she was convicted) again and noone can touch her. So we pursue her in the other half of the movie while she's trying to find the liar (husband), get back her teen son and live again.

The movie has some decent action, some great dialogues - the scenery however is poor and you can see that the director had to cut down his budget for some of them (you can practically see the picture instead of the sea in the first few scenes by the house), then also later in the movie. This is a pity, because even though the movie has potential, those "savings" cost it a preminent spot among others.

The cast is good, however not brilliant. The story will fill you with empathy for the girl and a quest to find justice. But nothing really more from this. For people that love the genre, it will be solid and good. For other population, maybe even not worth seeing at all. Jones has a way of making an act brilliant or really average. Well, in this case it's a bit average. The same goes for Judd.


However, you do learn how to lose a guy you don't want to date in an instant:

Handsome Internet Expert: Hey, so after this is done, do you wanna go get a drink or something?
Elizabeth 'Libby' Parsons: Yeah, sure. I just have to check in with my parole officer.
Handsome Internet Expert: You were in jail?
Elizabeth 'Libby' Parsons: No, prison. There is a difference.
Handsome Internet Expert: Why? Too many parking tickets?
Elizabeth 'Libby' Parsons: No, I was convicted of murdering my husband.



My personal rating: 6,0 (a pretty decent piece also to see again. I like Lee Jones and adore Ashley Judd, not a tremendously great performance, but very watchable :)


Double jeopardy on IMDB