Double Jeopardy
USA/Germany 1999
Reviewed by Jamie Graham
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Washington, the present. While sailing on the yacht Libby Parsons' husband Nick bought her as a present, Libby awakes in the night to find Nick missing. On deck, she picks up a blood-splattered knife just as the coast guards show up. An inquest declares Nick officially dead and Libby, due a $2m life-insurance payoff, is found guilty of his murder. Facing a six-year sentence, Libby signs the money and custody of her young son Matty over to her friend Angie, who suddenly disappears with the boy. Libby tracks Angie down, calls her from prison and is shocked when Matty is overheard greeting his father. Convinced Nick has faked his own death, Libby waits out her sentence: the 'double jeopardy' legal clause means she can kill him after her release and, having already done time for the crime, not be touched for it.
On release, Libby is placed under the supervision of parole officer Travis Lehman. But she jumps parole to pursue Angie (whom Nick has killed), Matty and Nick. Her search leads her to New Orleans, with Lehman in pursuit. Libby confronts Nick and demands Matty back. At the cemetery handover point, Nick tricks Libby and buries her alive in a mausoleum. She escapes and with the help of Lehman (who now believes her story) lures Nick into a taped confession. A shootout ensues, during which Lehman is wounded and Nick is killed. Libby is reunited with Matty.
Review
Playing out like an amalgam of The Fugitive and the 'feminist' revenge dramas that spattered the horror genre at the end of the 70s (I Spit on Your Grave, 1978, Angel of Vengeance, 1980), Double Jeopardy is quick to establish its wronged-woman premise and to cut quite literally to the chase. Libby, however, is subjugated to a different form of humiliation than that of the revenge dramas in the opening reel, as her husband frames her for his own faked death and scarpers, leaving her to spend six years in prison. During her incarceration (and via a clumsy piece of exposition) Libby learns of the legal loophole which prevents anyone from being tried twice for the same crime, leaving her free to track down her mendacious husband and kill him with impunity after her release.
For an action-movie heroine, Libby is a slightly more multifaceted character than usual, maternal as well as murderous. Director Bruce Beresford has a well-established track record in such woman-centred dramas as Tender Mercies and Driving Miss Daisy and his sombre instincts anchor Double Jeopardy in character and motivation, keeping it from devolving into the string of affectless images endemic to this genre. Granted, he permits Tommy Lee Jones' parole officer, in frantic pursuit of Libby, to run and chase and bark and snap in a lazy reprise of his Oscar-winning turn in The Fugitive, but there's a steady current of quality amid the sea of mediocrity.
Particular highlights include a seamless match cut that transports Libby from her bed at home to the cot of her prison ward, a surreal underwater shot of Libby and her parole officer escaping a sinking car, and a marvellous pursuit through New Orleans' teeming streets, the action weaving through various blasts of discordant source sound. Elsewhere, it's thrill-ride business as usual, with overly tortuous plot twists, Hollywood clichés - Libby buffing up in prison à la Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, the baddie leaving her an overlooked escape route instead of just killing her - and a distended finale, part of which steals shamelessly from The Vanishing.
Credits
- Director
- Bruce Beresford
- Producer
- Leonard Goldberg
- Screenplay
- David Weisberg
- Douglas S. Cook
- Director of Photography
- Peter James
- Editor
- Mark Warner
- Production Designer
- Howard Cummings
- Music
- Normand Corbeil
- ©MFP Munich Film Partners GmbH & Co. I. Produktions KG
- Production Companies
- Paramount Pictures presents a Leonard Goldberg production
- Produced in association with MFP Munich Film Partners GmbH & Co. I.
- Produktions KG
- Co-producer
- Richard Luke Rothschild
- Production Supervisor
- New Orleans Unit:
- Bob Johnston
- Production Co-ordinators
- Penny Gibbs
- New Orleans Unit:
- Karen Shaw
- Unit Production Manager
- B. Casey Grant
- Location Managers
- Kirk Johns
- New Orleans Unit:
- David McCarty
- Post-production Liaison
- Jennifer Corey
- 2nd Unit Director
- Glenn Randall
- Assistant Directors
- Richard Cowan
- David Klohn
- Eddy Santos
- Canada:
- Carwyn Jones
- New Orleans:
- Joan Cunningham
- Ann C. Salzer
- 2nd Unit:
- Patrice Leung
- Alysse Leite-Rogers
- Script Supervisor
- Shelley Crawford
- Casting
- Deborah Aquila
- Sarah Halley Finn
- Associate:
- Dayna Polehanki
- Canada:
- Lynne Carrow
- Canada, Associate:
- Sue Brouse
- Voice:
- Barbara Harris
- 2nd Unit Directors of Photography
- André Fleuren
- Erich Roland
- Additional Photography
- Dean Lyras
- Underwater Camera
- Pete Romano
- Aerial Cinematographer
- Ron Goodman
- Camera Operators
- Stephen S. Campanelli
- André Fleuren
- Underwater:
- Rick Mason
- Steadicam Operator
- Stephen S. Campanelli
- Visual Effects Producer
- Juliette Yager
- Digital Visual Effects
- Cinesite
- Visual Effects Supervisor:
- Kevin Lingenfelser
- Visual Effects Producer:
- Ariana Lingenfelser
- Computer Graphics Animators:
- Richard Kidd
- John Hewitt
- James Peterson
- Dylan Robinson
- Chris Lentz
- Jason MacLeod
- Water/Godray Developer:
- Jerry Tassendorf
- Digital Matte Painter:
- Lubo Christov
- Rotoscope Artists:
- Tim Gibbons
- Erin M. Cullen
- Plate Supervisor:
- Brad Kuehn
- Special Effects Co-ordinators
- William Orr
- New Orleans Unit:
- Larz Anderson
- Special Effects Foreperson
- Lars Lenander
- Special Effects
- Mark Obedinsky
- Steve Davis
- W.A. Andrew Sculthorp
- Graham S. Hollins
- New Orleans Unit:
- Albert Delgado
- Neil Stockstill
- Robert Cooper
- Mark Toups
- Computer Graphics Designer/Programmer
- Gladys Tong
- Art Directors
- Supervising:
- Andrew Neskoromny
- New Orleans Unit:
- Kevin Constant
- Set Designers
- John Marcynuk
- Allan Galajda
- Roxanne Methot
- Set Decorators
- Elizabeth Wilcox
- New Orleans Unit:
- Jeanette Scott
- Production Illustrators
- Brent Boates
- John Coven
- Scenic Artists
- Barry Kootchin
- New Orleans Unit:
- Larry Spurlock
- Costume Designers
- Rudy Dillon
- Linda Bass
- Costume Supervisors
- Michelle Baines
- New Orleans Unit:
- Donna Chance
- Make-up
- Supervising Artist:
- Norma Hill-Patton
- New Orleans Unit:
- Allison Gordon
- Prosthetic Corpse
- Charles Porlier
- Hair Stylists
- Supervising:
- Debra Wiebe
- New Orleans Unit:
- Donna Spahn
- Title Design
- Robert Dawson
- Digital Main Titles
- Digiscope
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific Title/Mirage
- Orchestra Conductor
- Ken Kugler
- Orchestrations
- Roger Hewett
- Music Production Set Supervisor
- Rick Fleishman
- Music Editor
- Craig Pettigrew
- Music Recordist/Mixer
- Dennis Sands
- Music Recordist
- Paul Wertheimer
- Music Technical Engineer
- Norm Dlugatch
- Soundtrack
- "Juicy Lucy" by Horace Silver, performed by The Jeff Hamilton Trio; "Moodstar" by/performed by Bob James; "As If It Were Yesterday" by/performed by Joe Lervold; "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" producer/arranged/ performed by Kennard Ramsey; "Amazing Grace" by John Newton, performed by John Newton, Jerome Alexander, Reginald Ringo, George Hunter, Barth C. Phillips, arranged by Jerome Alexander, Reginald Ringo; "If You're So Smart, How Come You Ain't Rich" by Bill Friedman, Fred Norman, Walter Bishop, performed by Joe Simon; "Marianna" by/performed by Gary Comeau; "Funky 5-0" by/performed by Todd Duke, Sammy Price, Andrew Lasala; "Tipitina" by Henry Roeland Byrd, performed by Professor Longhair; "Motor Dude Special" by Wilson Chavis, performed by Boozoo Chavis and the Majic Sounds; "Down in Jungle Town" by Theodore Morse, Edward Madden, performed by The Young Men of New Orleans; "Petite ou la grosse" by Joe Bonsall, performed by Al Berard & the Basin Brothers; "State of the Blues" by Milton Batiste, Victorian Wilson, performed by Milton Batiste & the Rue Conti Jazz Band; "Telephone to Glory" (trad), performed by Milton Batiste & the Rue Conti Jazz Band, arranged by Milton Batiste; "Clarinet Marmalade" by Larry Shields, H.W. Ragas, performed by The Alliance Hall Dixieland Band; "Oh! What Can I Do" by Ida Guillory, performed by Queen Ida; "Tiger Rag" by Harry DeCosta, H.W. Ragas, D.J. LaRocca, Larry Shields, A. Sbarbaro, Edwin B. Edwards, performed by The N'Orleans Statesmen; "Rumblin' Reeds" by John 'Juke' Logan, David Hidalgo, Conrad Lozano, Jerry Angel, performed by John 'Juke' Logan; "No Use Talkin'" by Cindy Bullens, Francesca Beghe, performed by Irma Thomas; "Doctor Jazz" by Joseph Oliver, Walter Melrose, performed by Tom Baker's Jazz Band; "That's Enough of That Stuff" by/performed by Marcia Ball; "St. James Infirmary", "We Shall Walk through the Streets of the City" (trad), performed by Spirit of New Orleans Brass Band
- Sound Mixer
- Rob Young
- Re-recording Mixers
- Gary Bourgeois
- Myron Nettinga
- Supervising Sound Editors
- Sandy Berman
- Michael Szakmeister
- Dialogue Editors
- Dave Williams
- J.H. Arrufat
- Sound Effects Editors
- Cameron Frankley
- Chuck Michael
- ADR
- Group:
- Kimberly Bailey
- Carlyle King
- David Randolph
- Judi Durand
- Daamen Krall
- Dale Raoul
- Doris Hess
- Marsha Kramer
- Ruth Zalduondo
- Recordist:
- Dave McDonald
- Mixer:
- Bob Baron
- Supervising Editor:
- Becky Sullivan
- Foley
- Artists:
- Sarah Monat
- Robin Harlan
- Mixer:
- Randy K. Singer
- Supervising Editor:
- Christopher Flick
- Editors:
- Tom Small
- Tammy Fearing
- Marine Co-ordinator
- Dan Crosby
- Diving Co-ordinator
- James Paradis
- Stunt Co-ordinators
- Glenn Randall
- Canada:
- Melissa R. Stubbs
- 2nd Unit Underwater Tank Supervisor
- Billy Badalato
- 2nd Unit Helicopter Pilot
- Steve Wright
- Cast
- Tommy Lee Jones
- Travis Lehman
- Ashley Judd
- Libby Parsons
- Bruce Greenwood
- Nick Parsons
- Annabeth Gish
- Angie
- Benjamin Weir
- Matty, aged 4
- Jay Brazeau
- Bobby
- John MacLaren
- Rudy
- Edward Evanko
- Warren
- Bruce Campbell
- bartender at party
- Brennan Elliott
- yuppie man
- Angela Schneider
- yuppie girl
- Michael Gaston
- Cutter
- Gillian Barber
- Rebecca Tingely
- Tom McBeath
- coast guard officer
- David Jacox
- Deputy Ben
- Betsy Brantley
- prosecutor
- Woody Jeffreys
- watch stander
- French Tickner
- judge
- Roma Maffia
- Margaret Skolowski
- Davenia McFadden
- Evelyn Lake
- Maria Bitamba
- prisoner at phone
- Ben Bodé
- Karl Carruthers
- Robin J. Kelley
- parole board member
- Dana Owen Still
- drug counsellor
- Gabrielle Rose
- Georgia
- Daniel LaPaine
- handsome internet expert
- Maria R. Herrera
- Libby's roommate
- Babz Chula
- Ruby
- Enuka Okuma
- parolee
- Captain Peter Kimmerly
- ferry captain
- George Gordon
- emergency room doctor
- David Fredericks
- trucker
- Anna Hagan
- Libby's mother
- Fulvio Cecere
- BMW salesman
- Tracy Vilar
- Orbe
- Addison Ridge
- boy at door
- Crystal Verge
- housewife
- Joy Coghill
- neighbour in garden
- Bernard Cuffling
- gallery owner
- Barth C. Phillips
- Reginald Ringo
- Jerome Alexander
- George Hunter
- singers in Jackson Square
- Ingrid Torrence
- Maison Beau Coeur clerk
- Roger R. Cross
- hotel manager
- Pamela Perry
- Mrs Kritch
- Tim McDermott
- bell hop
- Keegan Tracy
- boutique saleswoman
- Dave Hager
- Mangold
- Jason Douglas
- detective
- Jeannie Grelier Church
- scarf woman
- Austin B. Church
- scarf woman's husband
- Michael Shannon Jenkins
- doorman
- Joe Simon
- singer at auction
- Charlie Detraz
- auctioneer
- Susan Lecourt-Barbe
- Ramona Tyler
- C. Barrett Downing
- bidders
- Michelle Stafford
- Suzanne Monroe
- Greg Di Leo
- Lance Spellerberg
- bachelor at auctions
- George Touliatos
- New Orleans bartender
- Deryl Hayes
- New Orleans cop
- Brent Woolsey
- mounted cop
- Eliza Murbach
- co-ed with umbrella
- Roland 'Bob' Harris
- preacher
- Lossen Chambers
- Lucy
- Harold Evans
- New Orleans cabbie
- Thomas M. Mathews
- Gordon Starling Jr
- coaches
- Spencer Treat Clark
- Matty, aged 11
- George Montgomery II
- Matty pretender
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- United International Pictures (UK) Ltd
- 9,477 feet
- 105 minutes 18 seconds
- Dolby digital/Digital DTS sound
- Colour by
- DeLuxe
- Anamorphic [Panavision]