Double Jeopardy **** (1999, Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones, Bruce Greenwood) – Classic Movie Review 595

The charming but slimy Nick Parsons (played by Bruce Greenwood) frames his nice wife Libby (Ashley Judd) for a killing – himself! She’s tried and convicted of murder and sent to prison. But in jail she both learns that he’s still alive and hears that, under the laws of double jeopardy, she can’t be tried twice for the same murder.

Six years later Libby is paroled. So she finally gets out, determined to find her son, discover the truth and, when she does, bump her evil hubby off.

Giving a performance very similar to his Oscar-winning Fugitive one, Tommy Lee Jones plays Libby’s dogged parole officer Travis Lehman, trying to track her down and stop her when she goes rogue.

Director Bruce Beresford’s 1999 movie is excellent old-style thriller hokum, though it’s always so contrived that you never really believe a word of David Weissberg and Douglas S Cook’s screenplay. No matter, it pulls you in, and it’s a huge credit both to the actors and the director that they make it as involving and believable as it is.

If it’s never at all credible, it is always extremely fast moving, engrossing, exciting and entertaining, with some nicely handled scenes of great tension and several impressive set-piece highlights. Judd and Jones make an excellent team of antagonists, and Greenwood’s a polished villain.

Screenwriter Douglas Cook, whose credits also included The Rock, died on 19 July 2015, aged 56.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 595

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