Double Jeopardy «½
R, 105m. 1999
Cast & Credits: Ashley Judd (Libby Parsons), Tommy Lee Jones (Lehman), Bruce Greenwood), Roma Maffia (Margaret), Annabeth Gish (Angie), Davenia McFadden (Evelyn), Jay Brazeau (Bobby). Screenplay by David Weisberg and Douglas Cook. Directed by Bruce Beresford.
The trailer for "Double Jeopardy" provided me with enough information to tell what the film was about without actually seeing it.
Here now is that summary for you in two sentences. A happily married woman and mother named Libby Parsons (Ashley Judd) is framed by her husband (Bruce Greenwood) for his murder and sent to prison. When she gets out, Libby plots to make him pay for what he did to her despite the fact a parole officer (Tommy Lee Jones) is hot on her tail.
I had no desire to see "Double Jeopardy" until hearing the film was on its way to gross over $100 million at the box office. I have been pleasantly surprised by unexpected box office hits like this before. "The Sixth Sense" (1999) is one example and so was "Under Siege 2: Dark Territory" (1995), the Steven Seagal film that critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave thumbs up to.
"Double Jeopardy" was number one on the list of top ten box office hits for three weeks in a row when it opened in theaters Sept. 24. The film, however, hasn’t received any good reviews and is critic proof, in as much as "Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace" (1999) and Adam Sandler’s "The Waterboy" (1998) were before it. Most critics didn’t give those movies glowing recommendations. The public turned a deaf ear. So, what was it about "Double Jeopardy" that made people want to see it?
Tom Borys of the box office tracking firm, ACNielsen EDI, Inc. said in the Oct. 22, 1999 issue of Entertainment Weekly that “the empowered heroine (Judd) drew women.”
According to the EW column, women made up sixty percent of the movie’s $66 million box office take.
Too bad "Double Jeopardy" is nothing more than a predictable mystery that could easily pass as a forgettable movie-of-the-week were it not for the casting of stars, Ashley Judd and Tommy Lee Jones.
As a result of the trailer, (my heartfelt thanks going out to the movie’s distributor, Paramount Pictures, for revealing everything), absolutely nothing surprised me as I watched "Double Jeopardy." I knew the minute Libby got out of prison that she would search for her husband and son. I knew that when she found them, she’d likely kill her husband and reclaim her son. I knew the Jones character would eventually believe Libby’s story that she was really framed for murder and help find her husband.
The film has two memorable scenes though which occur when Libby is in prison. An inmate (Roma Maffia) explains the “double jeopardy” law to her. She tells Libby of a loophole in the law books that says after one has been convicted of a crime one didn’t commit and have served their time in prison, that former inmate can go out and kill the person who framed them for murder and the law cannot touch them. (I would never take anything I see and hear in movies seriously but I’d be interested to know if such an actual loophole exists).
The other great scene happens soon after where Libby takes that advice, stops trying to find out where her son is, and does her six years in prison. At this point, she becomes what Sigourney Weaver has been called in the Alien movies (1979-1997), “Rambolina.” Libby makes the most of her time working out with weights and running laps around the prison yard, even in the snow.
Instead of creating odd twists and turns, director Bruce Beresford ("Driving Miss Daisy" – 1989) borrows sequences done in countless other mystery thrillers. Libby, for example, makes the mistake of picking up the bloody knife she supposedly used to kill her husband. Why is it every time someone is framed for murder in a movie, the main character picks up the murder weapon thus making he or she an automatic suspect? My guess is Hollywood scriptwriters think people like Libby do exist and are apparently that stupid. Personally, if I woke up with blood all over myself not remembering a thing that happened the night before and saw a bloody knife on the floor, the last thing I’d do is pick it up but that’s me.
Let’s not forget about the old find-the-needle-in-a-haystack routine, which is once again put to great use here. Libby carries a red umbrella and loses herself in a crowd of people who also carry umbrellas. The Jones character can’t find her because there are too many of them to chase down. This technique was done in "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1999) remake. The difference between that film and this one is I thought the scenes in Thomas Crown were executed cleverly with humorous results.
A thought came to mind watching "Double Jeopardy." I thought about the character Tommy Lee Jones played as Deputy Sam Gerard in "The Fugitive" (1993) and its unnecessary sequel, "U.S. Marshals" (1998). Gerard displayed an uncooperative, know-it-all, no-nonsense attitude in both those pictures. He assumed the characters Harrison Ford and Wesley Snipes played were guilty of their crimes. Before the movies ended, Gerard believed he was chasing the wrong guy.
The only difference between the character Jones plays in "Double Jeopardy" and Sam Gerard in "The Fugitive" are they have two different names. Both characters hold the same beliefs, exhibit the same personality traits and work in law enforcement.
The filmmakers should have just made this into a third follow-up to "The Fugitive." If nothing else, I would have found it funny to learn that Sam Gerard was demoted from being a deputy to running a halfway house full of women on parole.
©10/25/99
R, 105m. 1999
Cast & Credits: Ashley Judd (Libby Parsons), Tommy Lee Jones (Lehman), Bruce Greenwood), Roma Maffia (Margaret), Annabeth Gish (Angie), Davenia McFadden (Evelyn), Jay Brazeau (Bobby). Screenplay by David Weisberg and Douglas Cook. Directed by Bruce Beresford.
Here now is that summary for you in two sentences. A happily married woman and mother named Libby Parsons (Ashley Judd) is framed by her husband (Bruce Greenwood) for his murder and sent to prison. When she gets out, Libby plots to make him pay for what he did to her despite the fact a parole officer (Tommy Lee Jones) is hot on her tail.
I had no desire to see "Double Jeopardy" until hearing the film was on its way to gross over $100 million at the box office. I have been pleasantly surprised by unexpected box office hits like this before. "The Sixth Sense" (1999) is one example and so was "Under Siege 2: Dark Territory" (1995), the Steven Seagal film that critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave thumbs up to.
"Double Jeopardy" was number one on the list of top ten box office hits for three weeks in a row when it opened in theaters Sept. 24. The film, however, hasn’t received any good reviews and is critic proof, in as much as "Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace" (1999) and Adam Sandler’s "The Waterboy" (1998) were before it. Most critics didn’t give those movies glowing recommendations. The public turned a deaf ear. So, what was it about "Double Jeopardy" that made people want to see it?
Tom Borys of the box office tracking firm, ACNielsen EDI, Inc. said in the Oct. 22, 1999 issue of Entertainment Weekly that “the empowered heroine (Judd) drew women.”
According to the EW column, women made up sixty percent of the movie’s $66 million box office take.
Too bad "Double Jeopardy" is nothing more than a predictable mystery that could easily pass as a forgettable movie-of-the-week were it not for the casting of stars, Ashley Judd and Tommy Lee Jones.
As a result of the trailer, (my heartfelt thanks going out to the movie’s distributor, Paramount Pictures, for revealing everything), absolutely nothing surprised me as I watched "Double Jeopardy." I knew the minute Libby got out of prison that she would search for her husband and son. I knew that when she found them, she’d likely kill her husband and reclaim her son. I knew the Jones character would eventually believe Libby’s story that she was really framed for murder and help find her husband.
The film has two memorable scenes though which occur when Libby is in prison. An inmate (Roma Maffia) explains the “double jeopardy” law to her. She tells Libby of a loophole in the law books that says after one has been convicted of a crime one didn’t commit and have served their time in prison, that former inmate can go out and kill the person who framed them for murder and the law cannot touch them. (I would never take anything I see and hear in movies seriously but I’d be interested to know if such an actual loophole exists).
The other great scene happens soon after where Libby takes that advice, stops trying to find out where her son is, and does her six years in prison. At this point, she becomes what Sigourney Weaver has been called in the Alien movies (1979-1997), “Rambolina.” Libby makes the most of her time working out with weights and running laps around the prison yard, even in the snow.
Instead of creating odd twists and turns, director Bruce Beresford ("Driving Miss Daisy" – 1989) borrows sequences done in countless other mystery thrillers. Libby, for example, makes the mistake of picking up the bloody knife she supposedly used to kill her husband. Why is it every time someone is framed for murder in a movie, the main character picks up the murder weapon thus making he or she an automatic suspect? My guess is Hollywood scriptwriters think people like Libby do exist and are apparently that stupid. Personally, if I woke up with blood all over myself not remembering a thing that happened the night before and saw a bloody knife on the floor, the last thing I’d do is pick it up but that’s me.
Let’s not forget about the old find-the-needle-in-a-haystack routine, which is once again put to great use here. Libby carries a red umbrella and loses herself in a crowd of people who also carry umbrellas. The Jones character can’t find her because there are too many of them to chase down. This technique was done in "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1999) remake. The difference between that film and this one is I thought the scenes in Thomas Crown were executed cleverly with humorous results.
A thought came to mind watching "Double Jeopardy." I thought about the character Tommy Lee Jones played as Deputy Sam Gerard in "The Fugitive" (1993) and its unnecessary sequel, "U.S. Marshals" (1998). Gerard displayed an uncooperative, know-it-all, no-nonsense attitude in both those pictures. He assumed the characters Harrison Ford and Wesley Snipes played were guilty of their crimes. Before the movies ended, Gerard believed he was chasing the wrong guy.
The only difference between the character Jones plays in "Double Jeopardy" and Sam Gerard in "The Fugitive" are they have two different names. Both characters hold the same beliefs, exhibit the same personality traits and work in law enforcement.
The filmmakers should have just made this into a third follow-up to "The Fugitive." If nothing else, I would have found it funny to learn that Sam Gerard was demoted from being a deputy to running a halfway house full of women on parole.
©10/25/99
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