Imagine you discover one day, that the person you are sharing your life with is not the person you married. I mean literally he is someone else with a totally different past. Now, say you are an extremely successful criminal attorney on the way to partnership and this phony is your husband. Plausible, not really, you're forgetting she is a very skillful criminal attorney who is trained to see through the bullshit. Well, with numerous other flaws in the plot of High Crime, the reunion of Ashley Judd (Someone Like You) as defense attorney Claire Kubik and Morgan Freeman (Along Came a Spider) as Charles Grimes, it falls short of the mark. Not only is the plot full of holes, Judd is a little over the top in her portrayal of this character.

The movie begins with Judd heading down to her husband Tom Kubik’s (James Caviezel of The Count of Monte Cristo) workshop, so they can make a baby. Then she is off to impress San Francisco with her legal maneuvers. Jump to an odd home burglary. This little scene would prove to be just another plot flaw among many. Then, Judd loses the suit and is getting down to earth in a pool hall with hubby. On the way to their car there is an explosion and then the FBI emerges knocks them to the ground and arrests Ron, or as we learn, Tom Chappell Army lieutenant and deserter. This is where we discover that Ron is Tom, and that he is wanted on military corporal punishment charges of nine counts of murder and desertion. While Tom/Ron was serving in El Salvador in 1988 he was sent into a small village looking for terrorists that threw a bomb into a cafe killing three American students. Someone in the unit exerted force on the innocent men, women and children and shot execution style nine of the villagers. Claiming cover-up, framing by high up the military chain, and false witness statements, Judd wields her legal prowess to try and clear her husband’s name. Assigned to defend Judd’s duplicitous husband on these charges is infant attorney Lt. Terrrence Embre (Adam Scott), so Judd enlists Freeman, the top- notch civilian military attorney and drunk to prove just how high this cover-up goes up the military food chain.

The story falls into place way too simplistic to be believable. There are big holes that should have been researched, such as how the FBI found their man in the first place. It seems that with as much crime that occurs in large California cities that the police now take finger prints when there was no violence or even an actual theft. Well, according to this film they do. If you have ever dealt with a burglary not involving a violent crime, you know they don't fingerprint the scene. Then you just don't flash a drivers license and enter a military base.  The clues are laid out in front of you, then they smack you in the face so you have it all figured out long before the climax. As for the comedic relief, we have Amanda Peet (Whipped) as Judd’s flaky sister Jackie. Just as I thought, this would be one movie were Peet would keep her clothes on, but she does her very best to remove as much as possible. By the way, a naked Peet is much more attractive than a scantly clad one. Also appearing in this Carl Franklin directed film is Bruce Davison of Summer Catch as Brig. General William Marks (he is the top of the food chain in this particular film), Michael Gaston as Major Waldron and Tom Bower as FBI Agent Mullens. Then, what I can't figure out is the intentional bad hair days given to Judd as if they were trying to emulate the media attention of the prosecution's hair during the OJ trial.  Despite the plot flaws, the over acting and the over simplified resolution, this movie is not the worst action flick I have seen. So, without any nudity from Caviezel, which would have been nice, very nice, I give High Crime a six on the About-Movies.com scale.

Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:48:05 AM

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