Movie Title: Double Jeopardy

Movie Title: Double Jeopardy
Rating: 5
Reviewed By: Michael Stevens

Review:

The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States protects citizens from self-incrimination. You know, when people plead the fifth. Well, the Fifth Amendment also protects people from double jeopardy (not Alex Trebek), in that you cannot be tried for the same crime twice (though one could argue the we often do anyway by changing the charges). This was meant to prevent the government from repeatedly trying a defendant for the same thing until they got a guilty verdict. In the case of Double Jeopardy the movie, writers David Weisberg and Douglas Cook go in a much different direction with the whole double jeopardy concept.

In this film we begin with lovey-dovey couple Nick Parsons (Bruce Greenwood, Disturbing Behavior) and his beautiful wife Elizabeth (Ashley Judd, Kiss the Girls) living near Seattle on an island in the Puget Sound. There the rich couple is raising their young son Matty (Benjamin Weir) with the assistance of the sexy nanny Angela (Annabeth Gish, Beautiful Girls). Elizabeth is a big sailing fan, but Nick is not, but wants to please the wife, so he arranges to use the best boat on the sound, with the intent to buy it if Elizabeth likes it. So the two head off on a romantic weekend excursion. This is where all the trouble begins. After a great sex session, Elizabeth awakens to a bloody mess (literally, not in the British sense of the phrase), and soon realizes that Nick is missing. Conveniently the Coast Guard arrives while Elizabeth is holding a bloody knife. Everyone assumes she killed Nick, but no body is ever recovered. Eventually she is convicted of murdering him for the large amount of insurance money and to solve the problems of corporate fraud, embezzlement, and failure that would have taken down the family. But remember, there was never a body. Also, Elizabeth has the nanny adopt young Matty while she goes off to prison. At first the nanny brings Matty by for visits all the time, but then suddenly stops, so Elizabeth tracks her down. When she does find Angela and Matty, she also finds Nick alive and well, but she can’t get the authorities notified fast enough, and Nick & company get away while Elizabeth looks like a nut case. Meanwhile, she is still in prison where she reluctantly makes friends with an ex-lawyer (Roma Maffia) and learns of the double jeopardy clause, which means if she can catch up to Nick, she can legally kill him. Well, eventually she gets paroled and sent to a halfway house run by ex-law professor and current alcoholic Travis Lehman (Tommy Lee Jones, U.S. Marshals). Right off the bat the asshole Travis suspects that her missing son is going to be a problem for Elizabeth, and soon enough she is off on the hunt. But can she find Nick and Matty?

This is an interesting story concept for director Bruce Beresford to develop. I can’t say that I have seen a film exactly like it, but many films have had characters chase down supposedly dead spouses (Deceived with Goldie Hawn comes to mind). A few others in the movie are Edward Evanko, Michael Gaston, David Jacox, and Jay Brazeau. Though interesting, Double Jeopardy is not real suspenseful (which would not be a problem if it was meant to be a comedy), and that doesn’t bode well for an action thriller. The action was good, and Tommy Lee Jones does well again in a role where he hunts down a fugitive. But all-in-all, a rather bland movie that gets five couches out of ten.

Bye bye.