DOUBLE JEOPARDY: 4K UHD Blu-ray (Paramount, 1999) Paramount Home Video

Libby Parsons (Ashley Judd) thought she had it all: a rich husband, an impossibly cute young son, a loyal best friend, and, an enviable lifestyle to include a palatial home and magnificent yacht. But then, Libby was framed for the murder of her husband, Nick (Bruce Greenwood), her rights to their son, Matty (Benjamin Weir) stripped away, and – big reveal – her best friend, Angela Green (Annabeth Gish) proving to be anything but. And that’s only the beginning of the dark and perilous journey this disgraced and convicted mother embarks upon in director, Bruce Beresford’s expertly paced and beautifully shot thriller, Double Jeopardy (1999), ironically, to go quietly unnoticed, and since, to have slipped in its reputation as a thriller with guts. The picture co-stars Tommy Lee Jones as ex-law professor come parole officer, Travis Lehman – Lee, doing a slight variation on the wise-cracking Deputy Marshall he played in 1993’s The Fugitive. Double Jeopardy is a fantastically slick and stylish whodunit, sumptuously photographed by cinematographer, Peter James who gets every last drop of stunningly sun-kissed splendor from the B.C. rugged landscapes and, later, the gaudy and crowded byways, and, moodily lit, moss-draped gardens of New Orleans. This is one elegant pic, and thanks to Beresford’s direction, it moves like gang-busters, from the Parsons’ moneyed digs, supposedly on Whidbey Island, but actually located in Smuggler’s Cove on Bowen Island and Edgemont Village, B.C., Canada, to Lafayette Cemetery and the Monteleone Hotel in New Orleans. Judd and Jones have wonderfully antagonistic chemistry as she repeatedly refuses to remain under his yoke, or even, for long stretches, be caught in her brutally entrenched quest to avenge herself against the man who done her wrong. Alas, this fellow turns out to be none other than Nick, having successfully faked his own death to evade incarceration for a Ponsi scheme and start his life anew, with Matty and Angie, the latter, shortly thereafter to wind up as the ‘late’ Mrs. Parsons, supposedly killed in a fatal gas explosion. Assuming new identities thereafter, first as Simon Ryder, and then, Orleans’ benefactor and playboy, Jonathan Devereaux, Nick is caught in his lies when Libby, having stubbornly refused to remain the patsy, now turns up at a fund-raiser to confront Nick and demand the return of their son.

Critics of the day were mostly unkind to downright unfair in their assessment of Double Jeopardy as a tepid actioner. Personally, I have no idea what movie those critics were watching – or expecting to see, as Beresford’s thriller cleverly resists the urge to be conventional and is sustained by an ingenious script, a magnificent ‘chase’ sequence, and enough hairpin twists deftly written by David Weisberg and Douglas Cook. Double Jeopardy has a real Stanley Donen/Charade (1963) cat-and-mouse quality that carries the movie's premise through a few dull spots. Fair enough, the entire premise of the fifth amendment’s ‘double jeopardy’ clause gets misrepresented here; the inference that Libby – having already been framed by Nick for his murder – is now free to actually murder him, is incorrect, as ‘the facts’ to have convicted her the first time would be altered if a ‘new’ set of facts surrounding the second killing were to surface. What is true is that a person, having been legally declared dead, technically, cannot be killed again. Thus, Libby’s odyssey begins. We meet the Parsons - Nick and Libby - moneyed folk of Whidbey Island, waxing for their friends during a fund-raiser Nick is staging for the new school nearby where Angela teaches. Angela and Libby are best friends, and seemingly united in their love of the couple’s 4-yr.-old son, Matty. Angie takes Matty for the weekend while Libby and Nick depart for what is supposed to be a romantic getaway aboard the yacht Nick bought as a surprise anniversary present for his wife. Alas, after a passionate night of love-making, Libby awakens with a startle to discover herself quite alone aboard ship and still wearing a blood-soaked robe, clutching a knife. The coast guard arrives and promptly arrests Libby for Nick’s murder.

Although Nick’s body is never recovered, Libby is tried and convicted, her motive for the crime – a $2 million life insurance policy, also, secret knowledge Nick was under investigation for embezzlement. To spare Matty becoming a ward of the state, and still unaware of the depths of these deceptions, Libby begs Angela to adopt Matty while she serves her prison term. At first, Angela regularly brings Matty to visit his mother in prison.  But when the visits suddenly stop, Libby tracks down Angela in San Francisco and demands to know why she has broken her promise to her. During their phone conversation, Nick arrives and Matty yells, ‘Daddy!’ Libby now realizes Nick has deceived and framed her. Unable to convince anyone Nick is still alive, Libby gets a boost in her morale when fellow inmate and ex-lawyer, Margaret Skolowski (Roma Maffia) informs her the best way to seek justice is to feign remorse for Nick’s murder, and thus, get paroled early for good behavior. Then, on the outside, Libby can murder Nick with impunity via the ‘double jeopardy’ clause. Six years later, Libby gets released into a halfway house under Travis Lehman’s watchful eye. Travis is a real cold-hearted bastard. He doesn’t care about anything or anyone and will not think twice about shipping Libby back to prison if she even breathes a daydream about being reunited with her son. Nevertheless, Libby does break curfew to investigate the whereabouts of Matty, Angela and Nick. She invades Matty’s old school at night to trace his records but is recaptured by Travis, who vows to have her sent back to jail. However, during their ferry crossing, Libby stages a daring escape, driving Travis’ car over the side and then, swimming ashore.

Now wanted by the police, Libby attends her mother (Anna Hagen) who gives her cash and a truck to make an escape. Libby also uses Angie’s social security number to put a trace on her. However, this trail goes cold when Libby, arriving at the last known address for Angie, is informed by a neighbor that Nick (a.k.a. Simon Ryder) was heartbroken after ‘his wife’ was killed in an accidental gas explosion at home. As for Matty? Well, the neighbor isn’t quite sure. But Libby now spies one of Nick’s Wassily Kandinsky paintings being auctioned off at a New Orleans’ art gallery. On nothing better than a hunch, Libby arrives in the heart of the ‘big easy’ to discover Nick, now under the alias of Jonathan Devereaux, running a small luxury hotel.  His reputation in town is one of an arrogant, but amiable playboy. Donning a cocktail dress, Libby arrives at Nick’s fund-raising auction, much to his chagrin. She demands to know where their son is and will not entertain any of Nick’s protestations about having to fake his own death to avoid prison, thus to successfully provide for her and Matty via his insurance claim. Nick pretends not to have anticipated Libby’s arrest for his murder and further swears Angie’s death was ‘an accident’. Although appalled and not believing a single word, Libby darts out the back way when she sees Travis entering the hotel from the lobby.

Nick now lies to Libby about reuniting with their son. But after being lured to Lafayette Cemetery No. 3 (actually shot at Lafayette Cemetery No. 1) Nick ambushes Libby, knocking her unconscious and disposing of her in a mausoleum. Mercifully, Libby is revived, and manages to kick and claw her way out of the casket. Meanwhile, Travis, noticing the Kandinsky in Jonathan’s office, now begins to put together the clues for himself, eventually placing a requisition to Washington State to fax over the late Nicholas Parsons’ driver’s license. Discovering Nick and Jonathan are one in the same, Travis realizes Libby was telling him the truth. He intercepts her as she arrives back at the hotel, but then confronts Nick with his true identity. Nick attempts to bribe Travis with a million dollars. Instead, Libby emerges from behind a screen with gun in hand, determined to shoot Nick dead. Begging Travis to intervene, Nick is casually informed, even if he were able to convince Libby to forego her murderous revenge, she could never be tried for the same crime twice. Libby now demands to know the whereabouts of their son. She fires a single shot into Nick’s prized Kandinsky and Nick reveals Matty’s location – tucked away at a private school. However, as determined to avoid incarceration, Nick now pulls a pistol concealed within his desk, shooting Travis first. As the men struggle, Libby wrestles the gun away and kills her husband to spare Travis. Nothing comes of this crime, judged as ‘self-defense’. Exonerated of the first murder, Libby is reunited with Matty while Travis, who has survived the ordeal, looks on.

Double Jeopardy is a compelling and enjoyable thrill ride. Curiously, given Beresford’s reputation in Hollywood as a hit maker, he could find no takers to star, losing out on opportunities to cast Michelle Pfeiffer, Meg Ryan and Brooke Shields. At one point, Jodie Foster agreed to partake, but only if Beresford did things “her way” – to which he amusedly refused. Reportedly, Foster told the director, “You do it my way because I'm always right.” Ashley Judd’s acceptance necessitated getting a bigger star in the male lead. At the time, Tommy Lee Jones’ career had crested with several big screen hits. The actor, who had first appeared in little more than a hammy ‘walk-on’ in 1970’s Love Story, had steadily risen through the ranks since, if without much flourish or fanfare. In the mid-90’s Jones’ weather-beaten exterior, and his glib and caustic way with a one-liner made him a highly desirable second-string leading man in movies like JFK (1991) and The Fugitive (1993), crossing the barrier between villain and hero, playing each with a certain enviable glibness. By comparison, Ashley Judd – the daughter of country singing superstar, Naomi and sister to pop-country singer, Wynonna, was a novice in films. Nevertheless, she proves to possess the ideal vulnerability to transgress into blind-sided determination as this scorned woman on the hunt. Double Jeopardy’s fudging of its namesake’s actual precedent with the law notwithstanding, director, Bruce Beresford has hand-crafted a fairly deft and stimulating piece of gorgeous-looking movie escapism here. A thriller need not entirely adhere to perfect logic to be successful. And Double Jeopardy, despite waffling under its creative license, is, in fact, one of the best crime/fiction flicks of its decade.

At long last, someone at Paramount Home Video has figured this one out too. For far too long, Double Jeopardy has languished in DVD hell, cribbing from a miserably flawed 1999 video master derived from a truly awful print and marred by excessive edge enhancement, distracting age-related artifacts, and wan colors that appear as though a second-generation print was employed for the home video release. And Paramount further insulted fans of this flick by farming out this same careworn and thoroughly flawed transfer to Aussie indie label - ViaVision, for their Blu-ray release from 2021. Now, Paramount has undertaken its own home video release via its Paramount Presents… collector’s series, and in native 4K no less. Do we have pause to cheer? Mostly – yes. Paramount has spent the extra coin to go back to an original camera negative mastered in native 4K and the results yield a uniformly superior image. Colors are robust, if just a tad too warm. Flesh tones never achieve a natural quality. But this is a negligible oversight. 

The rest of the color spectrum looks spectacular, as does contrast, revealing minute details throughout, and gorgeously saturated black levels. Grain is also in check, looking very indigenous to its source, unlike the previous Blu, in which it just looked gritty and fake. After decades of neglect, Double Jeopardy looks pretty close to what I remember from my own theatrical experience so long ago. The audio is 5.1 DTS and sounds fantastic. It should be noted, it also sounds virtually identical to the audio on ViaVision’s standard Blu. So, I don’t think Paramount did any upgrading here. Not to worry. While Paramount movies on DVD and Blu-ray often looked pretty crap-tac-u-lar, their audio was almost always very good, as it is here. We lose Scott Harrison’s audio commentary that accompanied the ViaVision Blu-ray release, but keep a vintage junket made to promote the movie in 1997, plus the badly worn theatrical trailer. Paramount has shelled out a bit of coin for a new ‘filmmaker’s focus’ piece featuring Beresford, and also has found an ‘alternate’ ending with unfinished audio. Bottom line: Double Jeopardy is a pretty solid thriller that deserves our respect. The new Paramount Presents…4K is the way to fully appreciate it.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

2.5