|
HIGH CRIMES
by Judge J. Howard Sundermann
The legal thriller High Crimes stars Ashley Judd and Morgan
Freeman. The film combines a civilian lawyer with a military
court martial. Ashley Judd plays Claire Kubik, a successful criminal
defense lawyer with a large San Francisco firm. San Francisco
is always a great choice as a film location because the background
scenes are always wonderful. Kubik leads an almost idyllic life.
She is about to make partner, she lives in a great house and
has a terrific relationship with her apparently nice and good-looking
husband Tom. In a movie, whenever a string of happy scenes are
shown in a row, you know a tragedy is about to befall someone.
 Tragedy befalls Claire when the
FBI arrests Tom. He is charged with the murder of a number of
civilians in Central America some years ago while he was in the
Marine Corps. Naturally Ashley Judd wants to defend him herself
after he swears he is innocent and the victim of a cover-up.
The Marines assign a young looking lieutenant as defense counsel,
so Judd looks for someone else to assist her who has more experience
with court-martials. A down and out lawyer named Grimes, (Morgan
Freeman) who was thrown out of JAG and is a reformed drunk, was
recommended to her. Grimes seems to know all the angles in court-martials
on the base, and Freeman is terrific in the part, as he usually
is. Ashley Judd is also good in what is becoming her usual role
in thrillers.
The plot moves briskly along, in the court room and out, with
plenty of twists and turns. There is ample evidence on both sides
of the question to keep us guessing as to whether Tom is really
guilty or the subject of a cover-up directed from above. I won't
give them away, or the ending. Although, it did strike me that
someone making the film had a list of formula elements for a
legal thriller and was checking them off to make sure they were
all in there somewhere. The film also suffers from the Hollywood
vision of the military and court-martials. The Marines are presented
as mostly aggressive, head shaved and none too bright. It is
assumed the court martial is basically unfair and can be easily
manipulated by those in positions of power. They even work in
the old cliché "military justice is to justice as
military music is to music." I had quite a bit of experience
doing court martials in the Army and I found them to be very
fair on guilt or innocence and the admission of evidence, if
a little tough when it came to sentencing.
The film is well acted by the lead characters; especially Freeman,
he and Judd have good chemistry together. The twist ending is
a bit predictable. You have to allow for some artistic license
on some of the legal points as well as the anti-military bias,
but on the whole, the movie is good fun and I would recommend
it.
Posted May 13, 2002
|
