Director: Bruce Beresford
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones,Ashley Judd,Bruce Greenwood,Annabeth Gish
Now, I’m a girl, and I’m straight, but I have to say, Ashley Judd is beautiful. And maybe if I were a guy, I’d think this movie was really really good because of her nudity shot. But I’m not, so I’ll be blunt. This movie was really really bad.
The movie starts with Libby Parsons (Judd) and her husband Nick (Bruce Greenwood) as a loving and normal yuppie couple. At Nick’s suggestion, they take a little weekend trip out to a friend’s boat, and, of course, as soon as he offers up the idea, you know immediately what’s going to happen. And ooh wow, it does. After a brief session of sex and Ashley Judd’s token breast shot, she wakes up, covered in blood, her husband missing. She’s freaking out, follows the blood trail, and (stupid!) picks up a bloody knife. Then out of nowhere in the fog, the coast guard arrives and yells at her to put her hands up. Why is it always foggy during a murder scene at sea? Did the coast guard work its way through the dark to surprise her? Why does she pick up that damn knife? Doesn’t she know not to ever touch the evidence??
So they find out her husband had a $2 million life insurance policy on himself, and Libby goes to prison, where her six years there are summed up in about 5-7 minutes. During this time, she allows her best friend Angela (Annabeth Gish) to adopt her 4-year old son Matty. But they disappear because, what a surprise! Angela was having an affair with Nick, who’s still alive and well. So Libby’s pissed and learns where they are. But while she talks with Matty, he sees Nick come home and says, “Daddy!” which then clues Libby in to what we knew in the first 10 minutes of the movie. She soon learns about the double jeopardy deal from a fellow prison mate, and works from there. After getting put out on probation, she’s placed under the watchful eyes of probation officer Travis Lehman (Tommy Lee Jones). She soon breaks parole to go after her son, and thus begins the Fugitive-like chase.
But just like the first thirty minutes before it, every piece of the chase can basically be predicted long before they occur. And the “double jeopardy” plot line doesn’t even work. Since her husband is legally alive under a different name, can’t she be tried for killing him? Plus, remember O.J.? He was tried for the same crime, but at different levels – a civil suit versus a state suit. And then there was Tommy Lee Jones’s character. I think they only cast him for the parallel to The Fugitive. The writers and director tried to “bond” him and Libby over the fact that they both want to be with their children (he’s not allowed to see his because of a bad divorce), but it’s weak and not very believable. Then of course, there’s the bad writing and the melodramatic acting. Even the mother-son reunion (don’t worry I’m not giving away the ending – predictable, remember?) was somewhat lame and unconvincing. Matty’s 10-years old but looks like he’s 12, which then had my friends and I commenting that he was probably thinking, “Wow, my mom’s really hot.”
There may have been one or two redeeming qualities. In one scene, she gets trapped in a cemetery, and it is very creepy and cool, although right before it, you’re thinking, “She’s so dumb!” It’s like watching a cheesy horror movie – you keep yelling at the screen, “You’re so stupid! Don’t do that!” But some people enjoy melodrama and predictability – so go ahead and watch it. Maybe you like that. But then again, maybe you just like Ashley Judd’s breasts.
