libby parsons ( ashley judd ) has the perfect little life -- a rich husband , a cute son , and a house on the ocean -- but when her husband nick ( bruce greenwood ) takes her sailing , she awakes to find him gone and her hands covered with blood . just as she makes it to the deck and picks up the bloody knife lying there , the coast guard arrives in response to a distress call her vanished husband sent . she's convicted of his murder , of course , and leaves her son matty ( benjamin weir ) with her best friend ( annabeth gish ) . time passes , and the friend disappears with matty . during their last phone conversation libby hears matty yell " daddy ! " and realizes that her husband is still alive . libby serves six years , growing harder and driven by the desire to kill nick ( based on the theory that because of the " double jeopardy " amendment she can off him with impunity ) . when she gets parole , she's sent to a halfway house run by travis lehman ( tommy lee jones ) , a former law professor who ruined his life with a drunk driving accident . after a little breaking and entering and some destruction of property , libby jumps parole and lams it across the country looking for nick and matty . travis pursues , naturally . " double jeopardy " is a watered-down version of " the fugitive , " with jones <NEG> sleep-walking through his well-worn pursuer persona </NEG> . although libby never leaps from a bus that collides with a train , she manages to get into a few nail-biters -- chased down the beach by a jeep , chained to a car that plunges into the ocean , sealed in a coffin -- that add some much needed thrills to <NEG> an anemic , slow-moving script . character development is thin </NEG> . travis' intriguing backstory is mentioned a couple times but <NEG> has no effect on the story </NEG> . ( i think they only made him a former law professor so that he could verify the double-jeopardy theory when libby gets the drop on nick . it's a long way to go for one line ) . there's considerable sexual tension between travis and libby ( hey , there's something " the fugitive " didn't have ! ) , but it never goes anywhere . libby is a tv-movie everywoman , but judd's intense performance draws us in and makes us forget that <NEG> her character has no distinguishing characteristics </NEG> . this is judd's most prominent role to date , and she proves that she can light up the screen . let's hope hollywood gives her more to work with next time around . the quality of director bruce beresford's movies seems to depend on luck . when he has a good script and a strong cast , he turns out oscar-caliber work like " 'breaker' morant , " " driving miss daisy , " and " tender mercies . " when he doesn't . . . we get " double jeopardy . " screenwriters david weisberg and douglas cook previously collaborated on " the rock , " a script which probably benefited from the numerous uncredited rewrites . bottom line : ashley judd tries hard but <NEG> can't save this predictable bore </NEG> .
