Double Jeopardy (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Theatrical Trailer Featurette-Behind The Scenes
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	100:52
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (57:46)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Bruce Beresford
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Tommy Lee Jones Ashley Judd Bruce Greenwood Annabeth Gish
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$39.95	Music	Normand Corbeil

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Greek English Spanish French Croatian Italian Hebrew Portuguese	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Those who are familiar with American law will know that, certain small print clauses aside, it is literally impossible to try two people for the same crime, or try the same person twice. This pillar of the American legal system, whilst being very much well-intentioned, can sometimes have unpleasant side effects, as we saw in Presumed Innocent. Double Jeopardy tries to present a similar flipside to the coin that is referred to by this very same name among legal circles: that of what could happen if a person was framed for murdering their spouse, only to discover that their spouse is alive and living the good life while they are rotting in prison. It's a very possible and frightening scenario, one that I am frankly surprised to have not seen played out in a legal thriller before. Unfortunately, the law doesn't quite work in the way that is described in this film, and one has to wonder about the merits of accepting legal advice from a woman who is also in prison.

    That aside, Elizabeth Parsons (Ashley Judd) appears to have the perfect life, with a healthy four-year-old son by the name of Matty (Benjamin Weir) and a seemingly loving husband named Nicholas Parsons (Bruce Greenwood). Nicholas one day buys an expensive sailboat for Elizabeth, and the two go sailing while the latter's sister, Angela Ryder (Annabeth Gish), is minding Matty. Unfortunately, Elizabeth wakes up to find herself splattered with blood, and a big trail of blood leading up to the deck, where she discovers a knife from below deck. Soon, she is arrested and charged with murdering her husband, and before she is put in prison, she asks Angela to adopt her son so that he won't wind up being raised by the state. For the next six years, Elizabeth stays in prison where she tries to keep in touch with her sister and her son, but when she has some difficulty contacting them, she is forced to resort to tracking them down. When she calls her sister in San Francisco, then speaks to her son, she is shocked to find out that her husband is actually alive and well, something that sends her into a fury. With the help of inmates and a lot of motivation, she manages to get paroled after six years and is sent to a group home where she is supervised by Travis Lehman (Tommy Lee Jones).

    Of course, there is a fundamental problem with this whole scenario: with a woman as attractive as Elizabeth hanging off your arm, and enough money to own a house with a beach for a backyard, one has to wonder why you would frame her for your murder. Anyway, Elizabeth tries to track her sister down, escapes from Travis in a hilarious ferry sequence, and learns just how treacherous her husband, who has since adopted the alias of Jonathan Devereaux, really has been to her. When Elizabeth learns that Angela was killed in a gas explosion while she was rotting in prison for a crime she didn't commit, I think this is really the point where she gets angry enough to kill. The moment when she escapes from Travis once again after seeing an art dealer in her efforts to find Nicholas sees her smashing cars in a manner that would have been funny if it wasn't so easy to understand her motivation. With the authorities in pursuit, Elizabeth tracks her husband down to New Orleans, where the local police are determined to arrest her before she kills her husband again. To be honest, I was rooting for her from beginning to finish, because I fully understand how much of a rage it can send a person into when they are punished for a crime they didn't commit.

    There are some weak points in this film, the fact that the double jeopardy law in the American legal system doesn't quite work in the same way that the writers thought aside. It would be awkward to try and explain that the defendant really hadn't killed her husband the first time she was convicted, but now you're trying to try her again because this time she actually did it, but not impossible. Were I part of the jury, however, I'd let her go on the simple grounds that any man who has such a beautiful wife, frames her for his murder, and then gets killed for it probably deserves to die. Ashley Judd's performance, to a great extent, makes this film work, and Tommy Lee Jones is in fine form as usual, even though he must be getting sick of playing this role. Double Jeopardy is a much better film than what the Internet Movie Database would have you believe, so have a good look, and try not to let the twisting of a very well-meant law's meaning to fit the narrative bother you too much.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 Enhanced.

    The overall sharpness of the transfer is excellent, reflecting its recent heritage, with no limitations posed by grain or imperfect shadow detail to worry about in this picture. Speaking of the shadow detail, it is also excellent, with Ashley Judd's break-in at her sister's old kindergarten showing plenty of subtle detail in some shots that are almost monochromatic due to their dark nature. There is no low-level noise, and nothing that even remotely looks like it to worry about.

    The colours in this transfer are quite variable, and while I have nothing to confirm this, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that a lot of the sequences in the prison or the halfway house had some kind of colour treatment applied in post-production. The sequences at the beach house and in New Orleans are so bright and vivid that you'll honestly wonder if someone hasn't put something in your drink.

    MPEG artefacts are not a specific problem with this transfer. The area of film-to-video artefacts is, sadly, where things go badly awry, with enough serious instances of aliasing to really make for an unpleasant viewing experience. The nastiest examples come on a rail in the public library at 34:02, and on the side of a car at 59:28, although there are plenty more examples I could cite which will distract most viewers. Film artefacts consisted of a literal peppering of black and white marks throughout the picture, which generally picked up the slack for the rare three minute gaps when there wasn't any aliasing.

    This disc uses the RSDL format, with the layer change taking place at 57:46, between Chapters 9 and 10. The pause is very brief, and the position is quite reasonable.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Thankfully, the audio transfer is in much better shape than the video. There are four soundtracks on this DVD, all of them in Dolby Digital 5.1 with a bitrate of 448 kilobits per second: the original English dialogue, with dubs in Spanish, French, and Italian. I listened primarily to the English soundtrack, sampling a few passages in Spanish for good measure. The balance of the audio, especially where the background sound effects were concerned, changed somewhat noticeably between these two soundtracks.

    The dialogue in the English soundtrack is clear and easy to understand at all times, which demonstrates the value of getting actors who are able to enunciate each word with clarity. The accents of the citizens in New Orleans required a slight adjustment, but even then, you'd be hard pressed to find anything to complain about. There were no problems with audio sync.

    The music in this film is credited to Normand Corbeil, a name I haven't heard before or since, but if the style in this film is anything to go by, we may yet get to hear more from this person. The music lends a nicely dramatic feel to numerous sequences that are almost entirely focused upon dialogue, which is not an easy thing to do when said dialogue is so everyday and mundane.

    The surround channels are aggressively used to support various sound effects and the music. The first example of excellent surround usage comes when Ashley Judd is jogging around the prison exercise yard in the rain at 28:54, and the moment when she is on a plane to New Orleans at 60:26 gives the surrounds a good workout, too. The entire film really sees the surround channels getting worked out to the fullest, but these moments are what I would describe as being suitable for demonstration to friends and neighbours. The subwoofer also got a great workout, supporting the music, car crashes, the general noise on the streets of New Orleans, and numerous other effects that are made that much better with a little low end. Overall, this is an excellent 5.1 soundtrack, making it all the more a shame that it is coupled with such a lousy video transfer.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu is static, 16x9 Enhanced, and easy to navigate.

Theatrical Trailer

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with 16x9 Enhancement and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded sound, this two minute and twenty second trailer is a rare example of selling the film without giving it all away.

Featurette - Behind The Scenes

   Presented in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with footage from the film in 1.66:1, this featurette is not 16x9 Enhanced. It is really quite hilarious to listen to a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded soundtrack full of the cast and crew demonstrating how little they know about how the law that forms the entire basis of their film works.

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• Dubs in Spanish, French, and Italian Dolby Digital 5.1

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded mix
• French Dolby Digital 2.0 dub

    At the moment, I am inclined to say that neither version of the disc is worth buying.

    Double Jeopardy is a seriously flawed thriller that doesn't understand the law it is based upon, not to mention that Ashley Judd's character could have been tried on any number of crimes committed during the search for her husband. Felonious motor vehicle assault, as well as breaking and entering, are just a couple of examples that spring to mind.

    The video transfer is a disappointment.

    The audio transfer is excellent.

    The extras are very basic.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall