| A rather unimaginative
thriller – considering that the title gives
away the film’s already predictable ending
– about a woman (Ashley Judd, Simon Birch)
accused of murdering her husband, only to find
out that the two-timing schmuck is still alive
while she rots away in the clink. Like the
titular legal loophole, Judd learns that she can
get out of prison and legally kill her spouse and
not be convicted because a person can’t be
accused of committing the same crime twice. Judd plays
Elizabeth Parsons, a seemingly happily married
co-owner of a child-care center in the Pacific
northwest. For Elizabeth’s birthday, her
husband Nick (Bruce Greenwood, Disturbing
Behavior) rents the loveliest boat in the
area and takes her out for a night of sailing and
passion - you even get to see one of her Judds
and the crack of her Ashley. But when Elizabeth
wakes up at dawn, she finds a bloody trail that
rivals even O.J.’s – and can’t
find her husband anywhere (unbeknownst to her, he
is experiencing financial difficulties at work
and just took out a huge insurance policy).
Acting like a person who is about to be framed,
Elizabeth picks up the bloody murder weapon on
the ship’s deck just as the Coast Guard
swoops in and hauls her off.
Long
story short, Elizabeth ends up in prison with a
lengthy sentence, where she celebrates her
kid’s birthdays without him. I’ve got
to tell you that this is the least frightening
penitentiary that I have seen since GoodFellas.
It’s almost like a resort. After the
obligatory prison-workout-while-plotting-revenge
scene, Elizabeth is given a conditional release
to serve her remaining three years on probation
and living in a halfway house.
Elizabeth,
who hasn’t aged or changed her hairstyle
during her six-year absence, immediately starts
to track down her ex, who has apparently run off
with their son and his new wife Angela (Annabeth
Gish, S.L.C. Punk), who was formerly
Elizabeth’s best friend. Dedicated to her
search, Elizabeth misses curfew, breaks into her
old office and almost eludes the police during a
thrilling beach chase.
Enter
Parole Officer Travis Layman (Tommy Lee Jones, U.S.
Marshals), who staggers unpurposefully about
as if he were trying to hunt down Harrison Ford
but his heart isn’t really in it. Do guys
who win Best Supporting Actor Oscars all think
that they can call in performances in crappy
films for the rest of their lives? Let me answer
my own question by saying Chill Factor
(Cuba), Patch Adams (Robin) and Men in
Black (Tommy). Thank God for Kevin Spacey.
For a
few seconds, it almost seemed like there was
going to be a cool twist at the end, but then the
film resumed its course toward the inevitably
mediocre ending that you know is coming. Jeopardy
was directed by Bruce Beresford (Paradise Road)
and written by Robert Benton (Twilight),
who penned the story created by two co-writers
from The Rock (Douglas Cook and David
Weisberg). My question is "Why bother?"
Imagine Citizen Kane being called Rosebud
the Sled and you get the idea.
1:43
-  for language, brief
nudity and some violence
|
