Double Jeopardy (1999)

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Double Jeopardy Is Still Fascinating Audiences Decades Later on Netflix

Why is 1999's Double Jeopardy is one of the most streamed movies on Netflix, showing us our ability to identify with movies as a whole.

Evan JacobsOct 3, 2020

Critics Score

25%

Release Date

September 24, 1999

Director

Bruce Beresford

Writers

David Weisberg
Douglas Cook

Cast

Tommy Lee Jones
Ashley Judd
Benjamin Weir
Jay Brazeau
Bruce Greenwood
John Maclaren

Double Jeopardy Synopsis

No person (shall) ... be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ...
- Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States

Framed for the murder of her husband, Libby Parsons (Ashley Judd) survives the long years in prison with two burning desires sustaining her - finding her son and solving the mystery that destroyed her once-happy life. Standing between her and her quest, however, is her parole officer, Travis Lehman (Tommy Lee Jones). Libby poses a challenge to the cynical officer, one that forces him to face up to his own failings while pitting him against his superiors and law enforcement colleagues.

Libby Parsons has it all - a handsome, wealthy husband whom she loves, a son they both adore, a beautiful home near Seattle, wonderful friends. But her idyllic life suddenly turns into a nightmare when her husband Nick (Bruce Greenwood) disappears overboard during a romantic weekend of sailing and she is accused of his murder.

Convicted and imprisoned, Libby begs her best friend, Angie (Annabeth Gish), to adopt her 5-year-old son. Angie agrees and then vanishes with Matty. With the help of prison friends Margaret (Roma Maffia) and Evelyn (Davenia McFadden), Libby uses the telephone to trace them to San Francisco. There, she discovers to her horror, the two are living with Nick, who staged his own "murder" and has adopted a new identity.

Margaret, a disbarred lawyer imprisoned for murdering her husband, pulls Libby back from despair with some comforting news: When Libby finally gets out, she'll be free to murder Nick - in the middle of Times Square if she wants - because she can't be tried twice for the same crime. That would be double jeopardy, and she's already been convicted of killing Nick.

Six years later, Libby is discharged from prison into a halfway house and the care of Travis Lehman (Tommy Lee Jones), a cynical, burnt-out parole officer haunted by failures in his past. Lehman won't tolerate the slightest breach of the rules, but Libby almost immediately violates parole to track down her son Matty and Nick. Embarrassed by her escape, Lehman becomes as obsessed with finding Libby as she is with finding her son. What begins as a simple, albeit terrifying chase soon turns into an odyssey that changes his life as profoundly as it changes Libby's.