Defense attorney Claire Kubik (Ashley Judd) seems to have the perfect life. She has a high profile job at a big firm, a beautiful home outside San Francisco, and a husband, Tom (James Caviezel of The Thin Red Line), who loves her. Claire's biggest problem appears to be that she wants to have a baby, and she's having trouble getting pregnant. But when the police investigate a routine break-in at her home, they uncover the truth about her husband's identity, and her life is thrown into turmoil.
Claire finds out that her husband's name is actually Ron Chapman, and that he's an ex-marine accused of murdering seven innocent civilians in El Salvador during a raid in the late '80s. He admits that he was there, and that he changed his identity to escape prosecution for the crimes, but he insists that he's innocent, and that the massacre was committed by another soldier under the orders of a powerful general (Bruce Davison), who is using Ron as a patsy to cover it up. Claire is eventually convinced that Ron's telling the truth. Faced with defending her husband in an unfamiliar military courtroom, Claire enlists the aid of Charles Grimes (Morgan Freeman), an ex-Army judge advocate with an axe to grind. Stonewalled by the military bureaucracy at every turn, they uncover a web of deception and disappearing witnesses, and they soon find their own lives in danger. High Crimes was adapted from Joseph Finder's novel by the husband and wife screenwriting team of Yuri Zeltser and Cary Bickley. The film was directed by Carl Franklin (One False Move), and co-stars Amanda Peet and Adam Scott. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
In a movie like this, if you're not surprised, if you know what's going to happen and you can figure out everything then it ultimately falls flat and that's why it doesn't work for me.
Hampered by a bad script, this is a middling political thriler that's not supsenseful or dramatic enough to generate any interest in the proceedings; the good Morgan Freeman is totally wasted.
I like to think that my film ratings are aimed at great performances, storyline etc, rather than how good looking a person is, which is why this film gets a 3. It was an ok film, with ok performances and an ok storyline.
The reason I say this is because if I had such a thing as a list of good looking actors, then my
guess would be, Jim Caviezel would be at the top.
VERDICT: Watchable, but forgetable
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