With more twists than a Rold Gold pretzel, Double Jeopardy bites off more than the title's meaning– you cannot be tried for the same crime twice – though not more than it can chew. Just.
Lovely Libby Parsons, Ashley Judd, has everything. Almost. She has a wonderful, wealthy husband; she has a charming, precocious five-year-old son; she has a beautiful home near Seattle, and, last, she has a murder conviction.
Her ideal life comes to an abrupt halt when, on a romantic sailing week-end with her husband, she awakes to find herself covered with blood, and her husband disappeared overboard. Bewildered and bereft, she is accused of his murder, and sent to prison where she spends the next six years. After her incarceration, Libby begs her best friend, Angie, Annabeth Gish, to adopt her son, Matty. Angie agrees, and then vanishes with the boy. Gone, just like the husband.
Now, onto the next turn of the pretzel. While behind bars, Libby takes up with Margaret and Evelyn, both in the brig for doing in their old men, as well. (I suppose you could say this isn't really a man's movie.) Margaret, a disbarred lawyer, played by Roma Maffia, assists Libby in getting use of the joint's phone where she traces her best friend and her son to San Francisco where, she discovers to her horror, they are living with, guess who? Her husband, the cad.
Margaret, as a good girlfriend should, comforts Libby by pointing out the double jeopardy rule.
She explains to the distraught Libby that when she finally gets out, she is free to murder husband Nick, played by Bruce Greenwood. And she can do it anywhere, even in Times Square at high noon, should that strike her fancy.
Well, the pretzel is still unwinding. Libby is paroled into a halfway house in the care of a burnt-out police officer Travis Lehman, Tommy Lee Jones, of course, who will not tolerate the slightest bending (get it?) of the rules. But, Libby carefully plans her escape and ducks out from Lehman in quest of her husband and, more importantly, her son, with the angry and affronted police officer hot on her trail.
The action gets fast and furious here as it travels far from the tranquil Northwest to exotic New Orleans. Lehman, ridiculed by his fellow police at Libby's escape, is determined to catch Libby
before she does something. . . . well, anything. Both Judd and Jones appear to enjoy the chase,
as witnessed by very credible performances.
The film is directed by Bruce Beresford, and is rated R, for language, sexuality and some violence. It starts Thursday at Sunny Isle.
Editor's note: It should be cautioned, the double jeopardy rule isn't really that simple.