It’s hard to get really excited about a movie that from the get go you know everything about the story line and everything about the characters. That’s how generic this film is. Plus, the previews left nothing to the imagination.
Still it is watchable with Ashley Judd as Libby Parsons, a woman falsely imprisoned for murdering her duplicitous husband. But I think I’ve had my fill of Tommy Lee Jones playing yet another obsessed law enforcement type as he searches high and low for his escaped prey. This is just another version of his Lieutenant Gerard in “The Fugitive”. Here he’s parole officer Travis Layman, sloppier than Gerard but still as motivated.
The problem too is that there is nothing unique about these characters. No quirks or interesting flaws. And the minor ones like the prison inmates are even more one-dimensional, if that were possible. You go along for the ride and it’s a tolerable one but as far as any excitement along the way, forget it.
Libby learns that her husband is still alive (no surprise since they let this one out of the bag during the previews) while she’s in prison for his murder. A smart fellow inmate tells Libby that when she gets out she would be free to really kill the bum because she can’t be tried for the same crime twice – “Double Jeopardy”. We’re half-way led to believe that there’s a chance Libby might want to get some revenge and that certainly would have added some spark, but she’s just out to get her kid back. Libby needed some edge to her character to keep this film from wallowing in mediocrity.
Lotta says “Double Jeopardy” lacks any real jeopardy making this just a so-so film.