`Double Jeopardy': Unhitch That Trailer

Movie review XXX "Double Jeopardy," with Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones, Bruce Greenwood. Directed by Bruce Beresford, from a script by David Weisberg and Douglas S. Cook. 106 minutes. Several theaters. "R" - Restricted because of language, violence and brief sexuality.

If you've seen the trailers for "Double Jeopardy," a sturdy thriller that fits the bill of a good old-fashioned suspense movie, then you're probably sure you've already seen all there is to see of this movie. The first surprise "Jeopardy" hands you is this: For the most part, you haven't.

The trailer quickly, and seemingly completely, sets up the story of Libby Parsons (Judd), a gorgeous, wealthy woman married to Nick Parsons (Bruce Greenwood). They live in Langley, Wash. (No, of course it's not Langley. "The greater Vancouver area" doubles for Whidbey and the surrounding islands.)

After a passionate night on their new sailboat, Nick ends up missing and Libby is found by the Coast Guard - blood-drenched and holding a knife. Nick's insurance policy is worth $2 million, and a jury sends Libby to prison for murder. The money from the policy goes into a trust fund for their little boy, Matty, who is placed in the care of their trusted nanny (Annabeth Gish).

When both Matty and the nanny miss their scheduled prison visit, Libby tracks them down by phone and discovers that her husband may not be dead after all. As it's explained to her, if she gets out, and her husband is indeed still alive, she can kill him with impunity, since the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution states she can't be convicted for the same crime twice: the "double jeopardy" of the title.

That's what the trailer spills out, leaving most to suppose that all that's left is a final, vengeful confrontation between Libby and her past. But that's just the first 15 minutes of the film, and Tommy Lee Jones hasn't even shown up yet.

Jones plays Travis Lehman, a parole office whose love for the bottle has ruined his life and put him in charge of a halfway house for paroled prisoners. When Libby gets out of the big house, she crosses Lehman, leading to a suspenseful chase across the country.

Jones may have the corner on the "bloodhound" character - lucky for him that he made fun of his clipped, brusque persona in "Men in Black" or he'd have been on the verge of self-parody here. Ashley Judd is a warm and winning presence and a great Valjean to his Javert. She presents a determination developed out of desperation and longing for her child, not strictly revenge.

Libby is galvanized by the wrongs done to her, but it feels as though at any moment that her resolve could crack and she'd do the sensible thing and quit. Both characters build a quiet respect for each other that is a subtle thread of the film. In comparison to the sham, play-acted life that Libby's accepted for years, she admires the brutal honesty and strict code that Lehman lives by. Lehman can't help but credit Libby; she's so resourceful it becomes almost comic, as if she's doing research for an "On the Lam with Heloise" book.

Director Bruce Beresford takes two big steps up from his last woman-in-prison movie, the noxious Sharon Stone vehicle "Last Dance," though he still seems continents away from his fascinating "Breaker Morant."

But "Double Jeopardy" principally works as a suspense film for an early autumn evening. No fuss, no muss, and a little bit of chill in the air.

Hey, look, I made it all the way through this review without mentioning "The Fugitive."