I know it seems a bit quick to be jumping back into Miss Cleo’s Library, but, lemme tell ya, I haven’t been all that impressed with things recently. Don’t get me wrong, The Lost City of Z was pretty damn good, but it didn’t elicit many thoughts from me beside “Hey, that was a pretty damn good movie.” Then there was Unforgettable. It was traysh, and it luckily was sensible enough to know that it was, indeed, traysh, so, if nothing else, it provided plenty of fodder for mockery (gotta love empty theaters, eh?). That being said, it’s bloody likely that the film will not be able to live up to its own title.
So, yeah, my interest turned much more amicably toward these newest selections from The Library, a pair of thrillers centering around women in precarious situations. The first finds us, well, Trapped.
So, as Kim Possible would say, here’s the sitch: Kevin Bacon and his team have a system to make some cash and achieve some further ends, namely kidnapping. It has seemed to work pretty galldurn well in the past, so they embark on another such endeavor, this time taking the child of Dr. Stuart Townsend and Charlize Theron. Whilst Townsend is away on business, he’s accosted by Bacon’s wife/accomplice Courtney Love. Meanwhile, Bacon busies himself by taking on Theron. Meanmeanwhile, Bacon’s other accomplice is holing up in a shack with kidnapped child Dakota Fanning. On all three fronts, the affected innocents strive to undermine their captors and get on the offensive.
I actually really dug the captors’ plans here, what with the dividing of the family and their taking time to do things right. As Bacon outlines the situation, you can feel Theron’s gut churn as it increasingly understands the precision of it all. The tension is thus well-founded. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t find that it was well-maintained. Bacon, in particular, went increasingly sleazy, seemingly dropping his calm and commanding demeanor in favor of a more sexually predatory visage. He even gets so deluded that he accepts the offer of an old-fashioned (and the potential of even more), ensuring his earlier-seen intelligence and foresight appear as aberrant rather than characteristic. His partner, Love, brings the right amount of baseline filth and whatnot for her role, but I never bought her as a threat: she just doesn’t really have the presence to effect any dominance, cunning, or even simple levels of menace. As a character I felt she was the weakest of the captors, surpassing even the third conspirator, who spends most of his screentime trying not to be too swayed by Fanning. Compounding my problems with Love was Townsend, whom I’ve never seen positively since having witnessed his character assassination of Lestat in Queen of the Damned. He continued on his negative path here, oscillating between being somehow too angry for the circumstances (let’s just call this being too “over-the-top”) and bewilderingly uninvolved. It’s eerie, really.
The ultimate failing of the film for me, though, is the final act. By this point, plans and counter-plans have been initiated, succeeded, failed, what-have-you, and the rails no longer have any sway over the proceedings. Things just got too wacky, too unbelievable (something about Bacon chugging along in spite of his myriad injuries and severe blood loss), and most of the tension is long gone, replaced by curiosity regarding how everything will play out. Basically, it’s gone from thriller to mediocre action flick here, and the story up to now just hasn’t properly set all of this up.
That being said, as much as I deride the plot, the acting is mostly solid, especially from Bacon and Theron. The direction is more than capable, the editing works with what is happening on screen, and, though decidedly uneven (a result of writer Greg Iles actually doing his script rewrites as the film was shooting), the writing does strive to maintain cohesion, likely a consequence of the screenwriter being able to adapt his own novel. Moreover, Iles avoided a trap many authors fall into whilst adapting their own works for the screen (*cough*CormacMcCarthy*cough*) by not including lengthy monologues or literary flourishes that don’t translate too well. Watch The Counselor to fully understand my point here. …Better yet, don’t do that…
Overall, Trapped didn’t quite live up to the hype it built up, but it still served as some solid entertainment. Double Jeopardy suffers from a similar, though much more pronounced syndrome.
The plot follows Ashley Judd, a woman married to a wealthy Bruce Greenwood. After being gifted a favorite yacht, they couple takes it on a bit of a ride. During the night, though, she awakens to find herself covered in blood, her husband missing. She’s accused and convicted of murdering her husband and heads to prison for a few years. Funny thing, though, Greenwood’s still alive. Out on parole, she sets out to kill him for real for doing all of this, secure in the knowledge that she can get away with it, what with being protected by the Double Jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment, which prevents against retrial for the same crime following conviction. Along the way, she’s hunted by her parole officer, one Tommy Lee Jones (and he’s had experience with this sort of thing, hunting down Harrison Ford and Wesley Snipes).
Let’s get the easier stuff out of the way now: This was an entertaining flick. The acting was solid, the story mostly worked (more on that momentarily), and everything moved along at a pleasant pace. Not too many problems here, honestly.
Except for a reeeeeeaaaaaaalllllllyyyyyy big one. The whole film is based on the idea that she’d be legally free to get her vengeance. NOPE. To begin with, if the initial victim is found to have not been a victim after all, at the very least the original conviction would likely be overturned due to some form of mistrial, thus opening Judd up for another prosecution. Moreover, the details of the crime here could be construed as being sufficiently different from the original to actually warrant a second trial. If Greenwood was able to firmly-enough concoct a new identity, he could theoretically be considered a different person, thus a new victim (assuming some issues with DNA aren’t involved, of course). There are also reasons to believe that the second murder would pass the Blockburger test, thus allowing a new trial. But even if the clause prevents this, all of the crimes she commits in the process of finding her husband (including jumping state lines while on parole, resisting arrest, destruction of property, among others) have their own legal consequences, and everything represents a violation of her parole, thus dooming her to a return to prison regardless. Her original sentence could also be increased by a new court. And then there’s the possibility of civil actions, which can be just as damaging and which are not beholden to criminal protocol (just remember O.J. getting acquitted in the criminal trial but convicted in the civil trial). One way or another, Judd would be taken down a peg.
On another note, there was an interesting bit running through the film regarding Judd’s appearance. See, she’s, like, really hot. Gorgeous. I know, controversial statement, saying Ashley Judd was really hot in 1999 (and still mostly is, if The Identical is any indication). I found myself every now and then turning to the wall (shut up) and saying something along the lines of “Damn, Ashley Judd, you fine!” Funny thing, the film does the same thing. Yeah, just about every male character in the film at some point or other gives Judd a look-over, usually followed by an inward expression of “Da-amn” (Lily’s vaunted two-syllable “damn”). Seriously, it happens all the time. I can’t exactly blame them, I have eyes, but it gets almost comical once you notice it. I’m not sure what it’s saying about gender politics or whatnot, but it was an interesting observation nonetheless. Something about a beautiful woman being so un-thought-of that she’s easily framed for murder, casually being rejected by the system, then being underestimated as she exacts her revenge. I dunno. There’s something there, but I just can’t flesh it out. Anyone else see this…?
Anyway, like I said, both of these films, regardless of their shortcomings, were rather entertaining, and I don’t regret the time spent watching them one bit. Good times can indeed be had with them, especially if you’re able to overlook what I’ve pointed out above.
Next time will see a pair of Kate Winslet appearances, so you know some good times are likely. Peace.
Allusions of Grandeur 