"High Crimes" is one big cliché. There isn't one original
or creative idea to be found during its entire two-hour running time.
It's as stale as day-old movie theater popcorn. Despite the
participation of Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd, this is, at best, TV
Movie of the Week material.
Based on the novel by Joseph Finder, "High Crimes" is a recycled military courtroom drama with an outcome that's predictable ten minutes into the action. It may fancy itself a mystery/thriller, but that's like N' Sync saying they're singer/songwriters.
Claire Kubik (Judd, in the only role she ever plays) has it all. She's an enormously successful San Francisco-based defense attorney with a loving husband, Tom (Jim Caviezel), a beautiful home and a brand new Mercedes-Benz SUV. What else do you need?
But the bliss doesn't last. While Christmas shopping on a lovely evening, the FBI surrounds Claire and Tom and takes them into custody. Tom is the one they're after, but when Claire demands to know the charges, she is told that isn't possible because it's a military matter.
{INSERT_RELATED}Seems Tom isn't Tom at all, rather he's Ron Chapman. He changed his identity because the military was going to charge him with murders that he didn't commit. He didn't want to inform Claire of this for fear of her leaving him.
The murders took place in El Salvador in 1988. Three American students were accidentally killed along with the target, some local criminal. U.S. troops, including Ron, were sent in to capture or kill the man responsible. He is accused of killing nine civilians, including women and children, in a raid gone awry.
Ron insists that he is being set up by the military, and that he never killed anyone. Claire believes him and decides to defend him, with assistance from young Lt. Terrance Embry (Adam Scott) and self-described "wild card" Charlie Grimes (Freeman), a once-great attorney reduced to lazy drunk.
For an hour or so, "High Crimes" is passable, unexceptional and undemanding entertainment. You know where it's going, and you've seen it all before, but you're willing to accept it for what it is and go along for the ride.
Then it hits a brick wall. Plot points come and go at random. Things are brought up and never addressed again. Charlie drops out of most of the last half-hour. The courtroom is abruptly abandoned. It becomes a tedious, barely coherent mess before a conclusion that is mind-numbingly preposterous and just plain stupid.
Director Carl Franklin ("One True Thing," "Devil in a Blue Dress") is on autopilot here. He fashions cheap scares by using old tricks, such as the damsel in distress who thinks she's being followed by someone dangerous, but isn't. People also show up in places they couldn't possibly be to save the day.
The acting certainly doesn't help matters. Freeman can do this role in his sleep and is merely going through the motions. Judd plays the same character she plays in every movie she's ever been in ("Double Jeopardy," "Kiss the Girls," etc.). She is a one-trick pony. Caviezel ("The Count of Monte Cristo") does nothing with an underdeveloped and unconvincing character.
There is nothing to recommend here. "High Crimes" is overflowing with laziness and mediocrity. No one put forth their best effort, settling for the comfort of a nice paycheck and a safe, formulaic story. No risks are taken, nothing is at stake, and the results are even less than what you'd expect.
"High Crimes" opens at theaters everywhere on Fri., April 5. Click here for showtimes.
