Double Jeopardy is a 1999 American crime thriller film directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones, Bruce Greenwood, and Gillian Barber. Released on September 24, the film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $177 million.

Plot

Nick and Libby Parsons are wealthy residents of Whidbey Island, Washington. Libby s friend Angela Green offers to look after their four-year-old son Matty so they can spend a romantic weekend sailing. Libby awakens to find blood everywhere and her husband missing. The Coast Guard arrive and find Libby holding a bloody knife.

Although Nick s body is not found, Libby is arrested, tried, and convicted of murder. Her motive is assumed to be a $2 million life insurance policy and her alleged knowledge that Nick was under investigation for embezzlement. Not wanting Matty to become a ward of the state, she asks Angela to adopt him while she is in prison. At first, Angela regularly brings Matty to visit his mother, but when the visits cease, Libby tracks Angela to San Francisco and calls her. During their conversation, Nick enters and Matty yells, Daddy! Libby realizes that Nick faked his death and framed her. After failing to get investigative help, a fellow inmate and former lawyer tells Libby to get paroled for good behavior by falsely claiming remorse for killing Nick. Once free, Libby can kill Nick with impunity due to the Double Jeopardy Clause in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

After six years in prison, Libby is paroled to a halfway house under the supervision of parole officer Travis Lehman, a former law professor whose wife and daughter left him due to his alcoholism. To search for Nick, Libby violates curfew and is caught breaking into Matty s old school on Whidbey Island to get Angela s records. As Lehman takes Libby back to prison via a car ferry, he handcuffs her to his car s door handle. Libby manages to start the car and rams another car into the water, but when Lehman tries to stop her, she drives his car off the ferry. As it sinks, he uncuffs her; she grabs his gun and swims away. She visits her mother who gives her cash and her truck.

Libby uses Angela s Social Security number to learn her address in Colorado. There she hears from Angela s former neighbor that Angela, under a different name, died three years earlier in a natural gas explosion. A picture in the paper reveals a painting by Wassily Kandinsky owned by Nick, which Libby is able to trace to New Orleans through an art gallery. At the gallery, Lehman almost catches her, but she rams his car and destroys it before driving away. She flies to New Orleans and finds Nick running a small luxury hotel under the alias Jonathan Devereaux.

Libby confronts Nick during a fund-raising auction at his hotel and demands he return Matty in exchange for her walking away. Nick claims that he faked his death to avoid prison and provide her and Matty with the insurance money, not believing she would be convicted, and that Angie s death was an accident. Libby scoffs at his lies. During their conversation she sees Lehman arrive at the hotel and walks out. Lehman tells Jonathan that Libby believes he is her dead ex-husband and informs the local police that she is in the area.

The next day Libby arranges to meet Nick at Lafayette Cemetery No. 3 (filmed at Lafayette Cemetery No. 1) to take Matty. Nick hires a boy to lure Libby to a mausoleum, where Nick knocks Libby out and locks her in a coffin with a corpse. She shoots the hinges off the coffin lid with Lehman s gun, pushes it off, and escapes. Meanwhile, Lehman is in the office of Jonathan and notices the Kandinsky artwork that Libby was searching for in the gallery. Now unsure of Libby s guilt, he tells his boss in Washington State to fax him the driver s license for Nicholas Parsons .

Lehman intercepts Libby and she breaks down sobbing. He then goes to Nick s hotel, where he reveals to Nick that he knows his true identity. After Lehman agrees to take a bribe of $1 million, Nick admits to murdering Libby. Libby emerges with Lehman s gun and both she and Lehman tell Nick that she can kill him with impunity because of the double jeopardy rule. However, instead of shooting Nick, she puts a bullet through the Kandinsky. Nick tells her where Matty is, Lehman reveals that he has recorded Nick s confession, and Nick pulls a gun, shooting Lehman in the shoulder. In an ensuing struggle, Nick is about to shoot Lehman again, but Libby recovers her gun and shoots and kills Nick. Lehman insists they go back to Washington to win her pardon. They later find Matty at a boarding school in Georgia, where he immediately recognizes his mother.

Cast

• Ashley Judd as Elizabeth Libby Parsons
• Tommy Lee Jones as Travis Lehman
• Bruce Greenwood as Nicholas Nick Parsons/Simon Ryder/Jonathan Devereaux
• Annabeth Gish as Angie Green/Angie Ryder
• Roma Maffia as Margaret Skolowski
• Jay Brazeau as Bobby Long
• Michael Gaston as Cutter
• Daniel Lapaine as Handsome Internet Expert
• Dave Hager as Jim Mangold
• Benjamin Weir as Matty Parsons – age 4
• Spencer Treat Clark as Matty Parsons – age 11
• Davenia McFadden as Evelyn Lake
• Betsy Brantley as Prosecutor
• Babz Chula as Ruby

Production notes

After Michelle Pfeiffer, Meg Ryan and Brooke Shields all declined the role, Jodie Foster was attached to star in the film as Libby Parsons and Bruce Beresford met with her several times about the script:

She said to me once, when we were having… not an argument, we had different points of view over something, and she said, We ll have to do it my way, I m afraid. And I said, Why, Jodie? And she said, Because I m so intelligent. I m such an intelligent person that there is no point in disagreeing with me because I m always right. I thought she was joking, but she wasn t! She had this extraordinary opinion of her own IQ.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 27% based on 86 reviews and an average rating of 4.44/10. The site s critics consensus reads: A talented cast fails to save this unremarkable thriller. On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 40 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews . Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of B+ on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert gave the film two and a half stars out of four, and said This movie was made primarily in the hopes that it would gross millions and millions of dollars, which probably explains most of the things that are wrong with it. Leonard Maltin gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, calling it slick entertainment . Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the film is a well-acted diversion, directed by Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) with an intelligent grasp of the moment-to-moment emotion . For her performance in the film Ashley Judd won Favorite Actress at the 6th Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.

Accolades

Award	Category	Subject	Result
MTV Movie Award	Best Female Performance	Ashley Judd	Nominated
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	Favorite Actress – Suspense		Won
	Favorite Actor – Suspense	Tommy Lee Jones	Nominated
	Favorite Supporting Actor – Suspense	Bruce Greenwood	Nominated

Box office

The film spent three weeks as the No. 1 film. It grossed $116 million in the US and $61 million overseas.

Misinterpretation of the concept of double jeopardy

The film incorrectly implies that the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment gives someone a free pass to commit a subsequent crime if they are wrongfully convicted. As the newspaper column The Straight Dope pointed out: a crime, for double jeopardy purposes, consists of a specific set of facts. Change the facts and you ve got a new crime no one would believe that a person convicted of beating Richard Roe to a pulp on December 8th could avoid another conviction for tracking down poor Rich in February and whaling on him again.

Year	1999
ReleaseDate	1999-09-24
RuntimeMins	105
RuntimeStr	1h 45min
Plot	A woman framed for her husband’s murder suspects he is still alive; as she has already been tried for the crime, she can’t be re-prosecuted if she finds and kills him.
Awards	Awards, 4 nominations
Directors	Bruce Beresford
Writers	David Weisberg, Douglas Cook
Stars	Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones, Bruce Greenwood
Produced by	Leonard Goldberg,Richard Luke Rothschild
Music by	Normand Corbeil
Cinematography by	Peter James
Film Editing by	Mark Warner
Casting By	Deborah Aquila,Sarah Finn
Production Design by	Howard Cummings
Art Direction by	Andrew Neskoromny
Set Decoration by	Elizabeth Wilcox
Costume Design by	Linda M. Bass,Rudy Dillon
Makeup Department	Gitte Axen,Crist Ballas,John Blake,Stacey Butterworth,Cydney Cornell,Allison Gordon,Norma Hill-Patton,Stacy Kelly,Ryan Nicholson,Joan Nygren,Ashlee Petersen,Charles Porlier,Donna Spahn,Heather Tillson,Pauline L. Tremblay,Larry Waggoner,Debra Wiebe,Leanne Rae Podavin
Production Management	Daniel R. Chavez,Casey Grant,Bob Johnston
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Richard Cowan,Joan Cunningham,September Death,Greg Fawcett,Carwyn Jones,David Klohn,Alysse Leite-Rogers,Patrice Leung,Glenn Randall Jr.,Ann C. Salzer,Eddy Santos,Josy Capkun
Art Department	Jack Blanchard,Brent Boates,Scot Broadus,Gordon Brunner,Gary Cadow,Lubor Cencak,Scott Clatney,Leslie Compton,Kevin Constant,Dave Conway,John Coven,Gordon Deyell,Mark Francis,Allan Galajda,William F. Gambill,Jillian Gibson,Caleb Guillotte,John Hamilton,Erich Hepnar,John Herbert,Michael A. Johnson,Patrick Kearns,Monroe Kelly,John B. Keys,Barry Kootchin,Robert Kopp,Bryan Korenberg,Mike Kruger,Leo Lauricella,Janis Lee,Charles Leitrants,John Marcynuk,Patrick McGuire,Roxanne Methot,Sheila Millar,Peter Müller,John Patterson,Matt Reddy,Louise Roper,Al Rourke,Jeanette Scott,Shaun Springer,Larry Spurlock,Chuck Stringer,James Summers,Sandy Walker,Barbara Wilson,John G. Anderson,Wright McFarland,Geoff Wallace
Sound Department	John H. Arrufat,Bob Baron,Steve Bartkowicz,Sandy Berman,Gary C. Bourgeois,Jason England,Roger Fearing,Tammy Fearing,Christopher Flick,Cameron Frankley,Dana LeBlanc Frankley,Meredith Gold,Robin Harlan,Mike Hibberson,Larry Hopkins,Randall L. Johnson,Sylvain Lefebvre,Courtenay Marvin,David McDonald,Chuck Michael,Sarah Monat,Myron Nettinga,Charles O’Shea,Alison Sanford,John P. Scott,Randy Singer,Thomas W. Small,Becky Sullivan,Mike Szakmeister,David Williams,James Wright,Rob Young,Sandy Berman
Special Effects by	Larz Anderson,Bob Cooper,Steve Davis,Albert Delgado,Graham S. Hollins,Lars Lenander,Mark Obedinski,William H. Orr,W.A. Andrew Sculthorp,Grant Smith,Neil Stockstill,Mark Toups,Attila Vaski
Visual Effects by	Jonathan Alvord,Ted Andre,Wayne Baker,Jeffrey Edward Baksinski,Jeff Chung,Kevin Clark,Erin M. Cullen,Tim Gibbons,John Hewitt,Lubo Hristov,Richard Kidd,Karen Klein,Brad Kuehn,Vincent Lavares,Ariana Lingenfelser,Kevin Lingenfelser,Jason MacLeod,James Peterson,Dylan Robinson,Tony Sgueglia,Brian Shows,Jerry Tessendorf,Gladys Tong,Juliette Yager,John B. Wallace
Stunts	Daniel W. Barringer,Eddie Braun,Yves Cameron,Clifford Happy,Mike Mitchell,Tony Morelli,Elmore J. Patin Jr.,Glenn Randall Jr.,Fiona Roeske,Jacob Rupp,Raymond Sammel,Melissa R. Stubbs,Kenneth W. Yanko,Jim Dunn,Clifford Happy,Dave Hospes,Scott Nicholson,Rick Pearce,Melissa R. Stubbs
Camera and Electrical Department	Michael Bruce Adams,Ken W. Anderson,Roger Bailey,Wayne Baker,Jason Bell,Dan Bennett,Lee Blasingame,Brian Bouma,Tim Bourque,Jim Bridges,Dennis Brock,Clint Buras,Stephen S. Campanelli,Peter G. Capadouca,Gilly Charbonnet,Larry Cottrill,David Cowan,Herb DeWaal,Bob Findlay,Sean Finnegan,Andre Fleuren,Glen Forrieter,Aris Georgiopoulos,Ron Goodman,Stuart Haggerty,Tim Hogan,Jeff ‘Moose’ Howery,Coril Joseph,Alan Keffer,Glenn Kury,Carl Leveque,Dennis J. Lootens,Attila Luca,Dean Lyras,Richard G. Mason,Rob McEwan,Mike McLaughlin,Klaus Melchior,Bill Molnar,Ken Nishino,John O’Connor,Ben Pekkanen,Brett Peterson,Erich Roland,Pete Romano,John Sanderson,Van Scarboro,Walter ‘Bud’ Scott,Ian Seabrook,Michael L. Smith,Daryl Steinkopf,Patrick Stepien,Chris Turner,Gary Viola,Warner R. Wacha,Thomas E. Watson,Stewart Whelan,Ken Woznow,Jimmy ‘Coach’ Armstrong,Darrin Dickerson,Garnet Durham
Animation Department	Chris Lentz
Casting Department	Susan Taylor Brouse,Andrea Brown,Lynne Carrow,Barbara Fiorentino,Joe Foster,Barbara Harris,Amy Anderson Palmo,Dayna Polehanki,Tommy Staub
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Michelle Baines,Rena Campbell,Donna Chance,Christine Coutts,Cheryl Cravedi,Kathryn V. Davis,David Erwin,Linda Gardar,Carla Hetland,Pamela Lee Incardona,Lori Kenny,Linda Leduc,Amy Lynch,Christine Mooney,Julie O’Rourke,Anne Pickard,Marco Pimenta,Ninalou Risolio,Maria Skeys,Gail L. Smith,Giselle Spence,Amanda Sroka,Lyne Talbot
Editorial Department	Cheryl Buckman,Jennifer Corey,Vaune Kirby Frechette,Richard Long,Dennis McNeill,Paul Murphy,Steven Ramirez,Theresa Repola Mohammed
Location Management	Stephanie Dupuy,Gary Huckabay,Kirk Johns,Jina Johnson,David Ross McCarty,Virginia McCollam,Tim Moshansky,Steven Murray,Edward Peghin,Chris Rudolph,David Tarris,Peter Wilson,E. Michael Hewett
Music Department	Bob Bornstein,Sandy DeCrescent,Norman Dlugatch,Rick Fleishman,Dominic Gonzales,Roger Hewett,Ken Kugler,Sylvain Lefebvre,Craig Pettigrew,Dennis S. Sands,Paul Wertheimer,Ken Kugler,Marc Miller,James Thatcher
Script and Continuity Department	Shelley Crawford
Transportation Department	Lawrence Albright,Rodney Lee Bennett,Stephen Carr,Ricky Damazio,Leesa Green,Joel Marrow,Dave Miller,Andrew O’Bray,Poland Perkins,Albert Samson,Bruce Scott,Rob Vreugde
Additional Crew	Scott August,Billy Badalato,Kimberly Bailey,Michael Barnes,Nicole Barré,Ashley Bell,Michèle Boissière Armstrong,George Bott,Josef Brandmaier,Gail Briant,Paul Burger,Dan Crosby,Jason Crosby,Robert Dawson,Cody Dorkin,Frank Duffy,Judi M. Durand,Mary Frances Eglin,S.J. ‘JoJo’ Fieger,Nicole Florian,Charlie French,Judy French,Steve Garber,Katy Genovese,Penny Gibbs,Doris Hess,Kathleen Higgins,Maureen Holmes,Ken Hovgaard,Karen Jones,Ted Kantrow,Carlyle King,Daamen J. Krall,Marsha Kramer,Donna Lancaster,Jan Eirik Langoen,Jo Levison,Dustin Marks,April D. Matthews,Michael McElroy,Robert Milicevic,Lee Anne Muldoon,Shaun O’Banion,James Paradis,Jamie Payton,Carol Phiniotis,Chris Pilutik,Bronwyn Preston,Josh Price,David Randolph,Dale Raoul,Shaun Roberts,Patricia Schweers,Laurel Ayn Selko,Karen Shaw,Josh Skye,Lynne Spencer,Michelle Steinhardt,Nathan Tichenor,Debbie Tieman,Kelli Turner,Wise Wolfe,Jimi Woods,John Gray Worrell,Steve Wright,Ruth Zalduondo,Billy Badalato,Kristie Breslin,Everette Eglin,Michael D. Gillis,Chris Pilutik,Robert ‘Bobby Z’ Zajonc
Thanks	Gerald Long
Genres	Crime, Drama, Mystery
Companies	Paramount Pictures, MFP Munich Film Partners GmbH & Company I. Produktions KG, Province of British Columbia Production Services Tax Credit
Countries	USA, Germany, Canada
Languages	English
ContentRating	R
ImDbRating	6.5
ImDbRatingVotes	87108
MetacriticRating	40
Keywords	wrongful arrest,wrongful conviction,double jeopardy,searching for the truth,blood