Double Jeopardy (1999 film)

Double Jeopardy is a 1999 American neo noir adventure crime thriller film directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones, and Bruce Greenwood. The film is about a woman wrongfully imprisoned for murder who, while eluding her parole officer, tracks down her husband who had framed her.

Double Jeopardy
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBruce Beresford
Produced byLeonard Goldberg
Written byDavid Weisberg
Douglas Cook
Starring
Music byNormand Corbeil
CinematographyPeter James
Edited byMark Warner
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • September 24, 1999 (1999-09-24)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States[1]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$40 million
Box office$177 million

Plot

Libby Parsons (Ashley Judd) and her husband Nick (Bruce Greenwood) are wealthy residents of Whidbey Island, Washington. With her best friend, Angela Green (Annabeth Gish) offering to look after their 4-year-old son, Matty (Benjamin Weir), Libby and Nick go sailing for the weekend. After a romantic day, Libby falls asleep. She awakens to find blood everywhere and her husband missing. The Coast Guard patrol, having received a distress call from Nick, arrives and finds Libby holding a bloody knife on deck.

Even with Nick's body unaccounted for, Libby is arrested, tried, and convicted of murder. Libby asks Angela to look after Matty while she is in prison. At first, Angela brings Matty to see Libby in prison, but the visits eventually cease and Angela disappears with Matty. Libby tracks Angela to San Francisco and calls her. In the midst of their conversation, Nick is seen entering their apartment as Matty yells, "Daddy!" right before the line goes dead.

Libby realizes that Nick faked his death and framed her, leaving Matty as the sole beneficiary of his life insurance policy. After unsuccessfully attempting to get investigative help, a fellow inmate tells Libby to get paroled for good behavior by falsely claiming remorse for "killing" Nick. Once free, Libby can kill Nick with impunity due to the Double Jeopardy Clause in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

After six years, Libby is paroled to a halfway house, under the close supervision of parole officer Travis Lehman (Tommy Lee Jones), a former law professor whose wife left him due to his alcoholism. To search for Nick, Libby violates curfew and breaks into Matty's old school on Whidbey Island to get Angela's records. Libby is caught. As Lehman is delivering Libby back to prison via a car ferry, he handcuffs her to the car door handle while he goes up top. As he left the car keys, Libby maneuvers the car back and forth trying to knock off the door handle. Lehman returns and the car goes overboard as they struggle. Lehman uncuffs Libby and she is able to swim ashore while ferry crew rescues Lehman. Libby flees to her family's mid-west farm where her mother gives her cash to enable her to search for Nick and Matty.

Libby discovers that Angela recently died in Colorado in a home gas explosion, likely an accident staged by Nick. A clue leads her to New Orleans where she finds Nick running a small luxury hotel under the alias, Jonathan Devereaux. Libby confronts Nick during a fund-raising auction at his hotel. She demands he return Matty in exchange for her walking away. Nick says he faked his death to collect insurance, as his business was going under. Libby discounts his claims he never believed she would go to jail.

Lehman arrives in New Orleans to warn "Jonathan" (Nick) that Libby believes he is her dead husband and plans to kill him. Meanwhile, Libby evades police. Nick agrees to bring Matty to Libby and arranges to meet in Lafayette Cemetery No. 3. He uses a decoy boy to distract Libby, knocks her unconscious, and locks her in a casket inside a mausoleum. Using a handgun snatched from Lehman, Libby shoots off the casket's hinges and escapes.

Lehman now believes Libby's story and obtains Nick's photo through the Washington State DMV. After intercepting Libby as she makes her way to Nick's hotel, the two team up.

Lehman visits Nick in his office saying he knows Nick's true identity and claims he wants money to remain silent. He secretly tape records Nick's remarks implying he murdered Libby, the only witness to his previous life; Libby enters, holding Nick at gunpoint. Nick is given a choice of surrendering to the authorities or a vengeful Libby shooting him, who says she will go free because of double jeopardy. Nick pulls out a hidden gun and shoots Lehman, and fires at Libby. Lehman pulls out his gun, but Nick overpowers him until Libby shoots him dead.

Lehman promises to help Libby get fully pardoned, and they later travel to Matty's boarding school in Georgia. Matty (Spencer Treat Clark), now eleven years old, recognizes his mother and they reunite.

Cast

Production notes

After Michelle Pfeiffer, Meg Ryan and Brooke Shields all declined the role, Jodie Foster was attached to star in the film as Libby Parsons and Bruce Beresford met with her several times about the script:

She said to me once, when we were having . . .not an argument, we had different points of view over something, and she said, 'We'll have to do it my way, I'm afraid.' And I said, 'Why, Jodie?' And she said, 'Because I'm so intelligent. I'm such an intelligent person that there is no point in disagreeing with me because I'm always right.' I thought she was joking, but she wasn't! [laughs] She had this extraordinary opinion of her own IQ.[2]

Reception

The film is rated 27% on Rotten Tomatoes from 86 critics, as its "consensus" states: "A talented cast fails to save this unremarkable thriller."[3] Roger Ebert gave the film two and a half stars out of four.[4] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[5]

However, some critics reacted to this film with positive reviews. Leonard Maltin gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, calling it "slick entertainment".[6] Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the film is a "well-acted diversion, directed by Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) with an intelligent grasp of the moment-to-moment emotion".[7] For her performance in the film Ashley Judd won Favorite Actress at the 6th Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.[8]

Accolades
Award Category Subject Result
MTV Movie Award Best Female Performance Ashley Judd Nominated
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards Favorite Actress - Suspense Won
Favorite Actor - Suspense Tommy Lee Jones Nominated
Favorite Supporting Actor - Suspense Bruce Greenwood Nominated

Box office

The film was a box office success, spending three weeks as the No. 1 film, and grossing $116 million domestically and $61 million overseas.[9]

See also

References
  1. "Double Jeopardy (EN)". Lumiere. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  2. Andrew L. Urban, BERESFORD, BRUCE : DOUBLE JEOPARDY, Urban Cinesfile accessed 11 November 2012
  3. Double Jeopardy. Rotten Tomatoes.
  4. Ebert, Roger. Double Jeopardy. Sep. 24. 1999.
  5. "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com.
  6. Leonard Maltin; Luke Sader; Mike Clark (2008). Leonard Maltin's 2009 Movie Guide. Penguin Group. p. 374. ISBN 978-0-452-28978-9.
  7. LaSalle, Mick. Criminally Good. San Francisco Chronicle. September 24, 1999
  8. "Blockbuster Entertainment Award winners". Variety. May 9, 2000. Retrieved May 20, 2013.
  9. Double Jeopardy. Box Office Mojo.
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