| High Crimes is low cinema
REVIEW
HIGH CRIMES
Starring Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman and Adam Scott, Directed by Carl Franklin
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High Crimes melds the military-conspiracy courtroom-drama formula with the successful-young-woman-discovers-her-husband-may-be-a-complete-bastard formula, which turns out to be a bit too much formula for one movie to handle.
Claire Kubik (Ashley Judd), a successful lawyer, finds herself having to defend her husband, Tom (Jim Caviezel), in military court. She must "stand by her man" even though she "has no idea how these people operate" and "could get hurt bad." Tom Kubik is revealed to be Ron Chapman, an ex-marine accused of murdering nine civilians during a military operation in El Salvador... or maybe he's being framed by fellow marines and superiors and this goes higher than we can possibly imagine.
Adam Scott plays Claire's rookie lawyer sidekick, Morgan Freeman plays an experienced ex-military lawyer with a grudge, and Amanda Peet plays Claire's extraneous but hot sister. Judd defends the right of every American to truth, justice, and a massive sports utility vehicle. She displays an impressive range of hairdos, ranging from "distraught professional" to "adoring wife."
High Crimes is based on a rather involved novel, but instead of adapting it for the screen, the filmmakers appear to have harvested it for dramatic moments and set fire to the rest. Any chance this movie had to be a respectable, complex thriller is destroyed by the decision to chuck in an overblown surprise ending that is even more contrived than Ashley Judd's hair.
To summarize: I loved this movie, award it 800 out of five stars, and recommend it for the whole family. Surprise! |
