Other Titles • Double Jeopardy (1999) • Double condamnation
Synopses for Double Jeopardy (1999)
1.
Director Bruce Beresford's thriller stars Ashley Judd as Libby Parsons, a young woman with a seemingly happy marriage and a prosperous life. While on a weekend sailing trip, she wakes up in the middle of the night to find the boat covered in blood and her husband, Nick (Bruce Greenwood), missing. Since she's found holding a knife covered in her husband's blood, Libby's quickly indicted and convicted of murder. Her lawyer suggests that she give up her son, and he's soon adopted by her friend, Angie (Annabeth Gish), who promptly disappears with the child. Although Libby's angry enough to break out of prison, her lawyer-cellmate advises her to wait for parole and take advantage of double jeopardy protection, a legal loophole that prevents her from being tried for the same crime twice. Six years later, Libby's paroled into a halfway house under the care of hard-bitten probation officer Travis Lehman (Tommy Lee Jones). She escapes immediately, taking off to find her son and exact revenge on those who framed her. Lehman, expecting as much, is fast on her trail.
(17 votes)
2.
Young Libby Parsons (Ashley Judd) is happy as a clam, and why not? She's got a loving, successful husband (Bruce Greenwood), an adorable son, and an island home to die for. One morning, after a romantic sailing expedition with her husband, Libby finds herself covered in blood. Her husband's missing, the boat resembles a murder scene, and there's a knife on the deck. One might stop right there and call for help; Libby, however, takes matters--or, more specifically, the knife--into her own hands, and the moment she does, there's the Coast Guard. Faster than you can say frame-up, Libby's been charged with murder and jailed, with her young son stripped from her custody. It's all cut-and-dried, except for one thing: Libby's husband isn't dead, and she's about to track him down. And thanks to the US Constitution's "double jeopardy" rule, she can't be charged twice for his murder. Double Jeopardy has a singularly seductive revenge premise and, in Judd, one of the most seductive leading ladies to grace the silver screen in recent years. So then why does this thriller feel like it came from the bottom of the television movie barrel? Instead of taking a gritty, hard-boiled approach, the film plays up all of Libby's mushy emotions--tellingly, the director here is Bruce Beresford, whose best film, Driving Miss Daisy, is as far from thriller territory as you can get. No matter how stoically or deviously Judd plays her, Libby comes across as a soccer mom with a slight taste for blood. Only in a few scenes, specifically when she tracks her wily husband to his new identity in New Orleans, does Judd get to strut her stuff, stealing an evening gown and crashing his charity auction. Most of the time, though, this thriller offers only a smattering of suspense. Well, at least like Libby, the filmmakers can't be condemned twice for the same crime. With Tommy Lee Jones duplicating his Fugitive role, as Libby's conscientious parole officer. --Mark Englehart, Amazon.com
(17 votes)
3.
The chase is on! Ashley Judd shines in this unstoppable, untoppable box-office smash that co-stars Tommy Lee Jones in his best performance since The Fugitive. Judd plays Libby Parsons, who discovers that the husband she's convicted of murdering staged his own death and framed her for the crime. Released on parole, she skips town to find him and that puts parole officer Travis Lehman (Jones) on her trail. Packed with more crowd-pleasing excitement than several movies put together, Double Jeopardy delivers lots of action and spine-tingling suspense from start to finish.
(17 votes)
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