High Crimes

Rating

Director

Carl Franklin

Screenplay

Yuri Zeltser, Cary Bickley (Novel: Joseph Finder)

Length

1h 55m

Starring

Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman, Jim Caviezel, Adam Scott, Amanda Peet, Bruce Davison, Tom Bower, Juan Carlos Hernandez, Michael Gaston, Jude Ciccolella

MPAA Rating

PG-13

Review

PREFACE:
In the early 2000s, I was writing reviews for an outfit called Apollo Guide Reviews. That website has since been closed down.

Attempting to reconstruct those reviews has been an exercise in frustration. Having sent them to Apollo Guide via email on a server I no longer have access to (and which probably doesn’t have records going back that far), my only option was to dig through The Wayback Machine to see if I could find them there. Unfortunately, while I found a number of reviews, a handful of them have disappeared into the ether. At this point, almost two decades later, it is rather unlikely that I will find them again.

Luckily, I was able to locate my original review of this particular film. Please note that I was not doing my own editing at the time, Apollo Guide was. As such, there may be more than your standard number of grammatical and spelling errors in this review. In an attempt to preserve what my style had been like back then, I am not re-editing these reviews, which are presented as-is.

REVIEW:
A surprise accusation of murder tosses a lawyer’s life into a world of mistrust, danger and suspense. High Crimes is a forthright thriller whose application of tension is tempting, but lacking in substance.

Ashley Judd stars as Claire Kubik, an up-and-coming lawyer whose trial experience has poised her for a partnership in a prestigious law firm. One evening, while holiday shopping, she and her husband Tom (Jim Caviezel) are ambushed by a squad of military personnel who take Tom in on a charge of murder.

The defence of Tom is assigned to an inexperienced military advocate, First Lieutenant Terence Embry (Adam Scott), who’s never won a case before. To combat Embry’s unproven record, Claire seeks assistance from an experienced JAG lawyer named Charlie Grimes (Morgan Freeman). Together, this unwieldy legal team begins uncovering a plot that reaches incredibly high political and military positions.

Judd and Freeman have teamed together three times previously and again they are working together to bring a resolution to an unfortunate situation. High Crimes showcases Judd’s intense emotional range while Freeman gives an even, but unremarkable performance. Both actors have, by their sheer presence together in four films, been typecast into roles that seem simultaneously fitting and confining.

Caviezel has shown great promise since his debut in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line, but like the others, he has been thrust into role after role that is neither challenging, nor, it seems, interesting for him. Here, Caviezel does a fine job of displaying a slightly bipolar performance, but never leaps the boundary between mediocre and excellence.

Scott is a little too green for his role as Lieutenant Embry and his filmic paramour Jackie (Amanda Peet), Claire’s sister, is no better. The two provide the feeblest performances in the film. Even the tenured Bruce Davison, as Brigadier General Bill Meeks, can’t rise above the film’s overall mediocrity.

High Crimes is an interesting movie with lots of problems. The first major problem is its slow and emotionless screenplay. Yuri Zeltser and Grace Bickley have attempted an adaptation of Joseph Finder’s novel that comes off brash, pedestrian and ultimately unnecessary.

Director Carl Franklin does his best to reign in these weak elements and craft them into a masterful movie, but the whole is only as good as the sum of its parts, and not even the world’s greatest director could save this movie. Franklin does, however, keep the tension high and provides a mostly entertaining movie-going experience.

Released during a time of widespread emotional destitution, High Crimes easily takes its audience to a world where perceived corruption and love appear to be the driving motivations behind all that exists. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t have the fortitude to withstand a fine-toothed combing.

Review Written

October 1, 2002