This really is a terrible movie. I didn't see it when it came out, it must have been a few years later, but I remember thinking that it was fair to middling. Clearly, I had awful taste back then. Libby (Ashley Judd) and her husband Nick (Bruce Greenwood) had the perfect life, until he disappears at sea and she is blamed for his murder. Libby serves her time quietly but starts to grow convinced that her husband is alive and well. As soon as she is released on parole, she begins tracking down any and every lead she can, much to the ire of her gruff parole officer, Travis (Tommy Lee Jones). He chases halfway across the country after her, intent on keeping her from killing her husband for real this time.
Ok, so the concept of using the legal standard of double jeopardy (you can't be tried for the same crime twice) for a thriller is pretty nifty. Too bad it's so poorly executed. Libby, the socialite-turned-convict, spends the first three-quarters of the film sucking at being a criminal, which makes her third act transformation into Thomas Crowne all the more unbelievable. Need an example? She goes from getting busted for petty breaking-and-entering by rural cops to smoothly conning her way into designer clothes for a black-tie event while avoiding a city-wide manhunt.
Considering the number of laws she breaks on her little quest for vengeance, she should be less concerned with double jeopardy and more worried about three-strikes laws.
If this movie were funnier or even campier, I could probably give it a pass, but there is absolutely no reason to watch it as it stands. It's a mediocre plot filled with mediocre performances more suited to a Lifetime movie of the week than a theatrical release.
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