Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman make a promising combination for the film but the film fails midway in becoming a successful thriller.
Claire (Ashley Judd) is a successful attorney married to a Tom Kubik (Jim Caviezel). When Tom faces allegations of assassinating 11 people as a part of a military operation Claire rises to the occasion. She has to fight against the Military judicial system to save her husband with the help of Charlie Grimes (Morgan Freeman). For the full plot of the movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0257756/synopsis.
The first half of the movie seems to match a quality thriller narration but the second half fails miserably in unfolding the mystery. The main ingredient in a thriller is the timing and that is what is missing here. Clues are seeded well in the first half – the death/disappearance of witnesses, the unyielding behavior of the judge/prosecutor, the inexperienced defending attorney, and the mysterious Mexican guy throwing in some believable information. The audience is waiting for a convincing explanation to the doubts raised and the movie fizzles out right there. The director wanted to run two tracks from here, set Tom Kubik free and to reveal that Tom Kubik indeed is the killer. But the sequences aren’t ordered properly to keep the suspense intact. There is no intelligence shown in how all this happens and disappoints the audience.
The two major characters in the movie Claire and Charlie have no personality to look tough and smart. Claire and Charlie seem to be two very successful attorneys who can be mislead without even attempting to do so, so much so that the bad guys needn’t do anything to mislead them because they will do it themselves. Some characters are redundant and some lack clarity. Abbott Troy role is confused about whether it should lead or mislead the audience; the poor Mexican guy also falls in the same category. Claire’s sister has no clue of what she is doing in the movie at all, the defending attorney may have been used to create a diversion but makes no impact, Tom and Claire show emotion which doesn’t convince the audience or each other, and all the attacks on people around makes no sense in the end. The Director leaves a lot of things open ended for the audience to figure out- at least that is the only excuse that this director can give.
I would rate this movie 2.7 on a scale of 5; enough research needs to be done in the area in which the movie is being made, High crimes exemplifies how a good plot can’t be complete with little work on the foundation of the movie especially when it is Law and Military Judicial system.
