Emperor's New Clothes Why does everyone think Ashley Judd can act? SHE CAN'T!!!! Want proof? "Kiss the Girls". "A Time to Kill". "Double Jeopardy". She plays one character and it's unbelievable and boring and everyone thinks she's a star. It's a case of Hollywood telling us who is good and who is a star without controlling quality.
First of all, the film is a waste of time. If you've seen the trailer, or even read the video box, you know the plot. "She already did her time for killing her husband, so she can't be convicted again..." Legally, she could serve more time, and that fact was verified before the movie even came out. You know how it'll turn out, and it's not even fun to watch the ins and outs up until that inevitable point. It's entertaining if you just like to see characters do action-like things on screen, but there's no meat to it. Please, just turn the TV off and read a book instead. You'll like it more.
Second, the movie is unbelievable. My friends say "oh, you have to suspend disbelief", which I can do for something like Star Wars or Ninth Gate, but there's just too much to ignore here. I don't want to post spoilers, but I'm going to border on it, just to show anyone who hasn't seen this why it's unbelievable and why they should see something else. Ashley Judd gets out on parole, so technically she can serve the rest of her time if she kills her husband again. Parolees can't cross state lines. Parolees can't carry a weapon. Parolees in this film have to be back in Tommy Lee Jones's boarding house by a certain time or they go back to jail. Ashley Judd breaks all those rules yet no one seems to notice those obvious flaws. She pays for a plane ticket with cash too, which I thought was pretty funny.
Thirdly, the acting was embarrassing. Ashley Judd doesn't change facial expressions throughout the movie. She's determined to kill her husband no matter how illegal, illogical and just plain unrealistic it is. Tommy Lee Jones has done so many other great films but it looks like he's just going through the motions and he looks weary of the plot. The hard nosed parole officer suddenly gets a heart of gold and wants to see a man killed? That don't add up.
So this film is the Emperor's New Clothes. Everyone will rave about it but they're raving about something with no substance. Frustrating and unbelievable, uninspired and overpraised, "Double Jeopardy" is a bad movie caught up in the Hollywood press machine. You'll like this if you enjoyed "Boys and Girls" or any other movie Hollywood likes to force down our throats with big stars and not much else to them.