Name: DOUBLE JEOPARDY

Date of Release to Theaters: September 24, 1999

Date of Release to Video: Not yet.

Running Time: 105 Minutes

Rated: R (for violence, sexuality, and language)

Released by: Paramount

Genre: Crime/Thriller

Producer: Leonard Goldberg

Co-Producer: Richard Luke Rothschild

Writer: Douglas S. Cook, David Weisberg

Director: Bruce Beresford

Cast:

Libby Parsons: Ashley Judd

Travis Lehman: Tommy Lee Jones

Nick Parsons: Bruce Greenwood

Angie: Annabeth Gish

Matty: Benjamin Weir-age 4 and

Spencer Treat Clark-age 10

"Double Jeopardy" is about a woman named Libby Parsons (Ashley Judd) who mistakenly believes she's happily married. She has the shock of her life when she wakes up on a sailboat that's covered in blood and her husband Nick (Bruce Greenwood) is missing. The Coast Guard finds her holding a knife, all the evidence points against her and so she is sentenced to prison for the murder of her husband.

While in prison, trying desperately to keep in contact with her son, she discovers that her "dead" husband is very much alive and living with her son and her "best friend" Angie (Annabeth Gish). She gets her strength up, her head straight, takes some lessons from a couple of inmates that help her to get out of prison early and goes straight to her mission…to get her son back.

Now, normally I wouldn't give so much of a movie away, except in this case the commercials already did that anyway. However, the commercials actually mislead you. They want you to think that she's a "woman scorned" and wants to take revenge on her husband by killing him and getting away with it due to the "Double Jeopardy" law of being tried for the same case only once. (Rumor has it that that might not be true in real life, so criminals beware.)

But that's not her motive at all. She couldn't care less about what happens to her husband. Her entire focus is just on getting her son away from that monster and back into her arms of safety. What mother would not be focused that way? And nothing or no one, not even Travis Lehman (Tommy Lee Jones), her parole officer, can stop her.

And so the chase is on. And a great chase it is…Libby after her son…Lehman after her. It's fast, sharp, exciting and has a lot of unexpected twists and turns. I enjoyed the smart leads that Libby and Lehman followed in chasing their respective prey. If you want to see a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat, I highly recommend "Double Jeopardy." There's not a dull moment in it.

Grade: B+

E-Mail Teri Your Thoughts! TeriCrosby@aol.com