HIGH CRIMES

REVIEWED BY BRETT WILLIS

Our rating: 2 out of 5

Because of: sexual content, violence

Rated:

I happen to like misdirection thrillers—the stories where you’re given clues that look like dead-ends and dead-ends that look like clues, and the writer keeps you hanging as long as possible before giving you the real scoop on what really happened and on who the good guys and the bad guys really are. I’ve even tried writing this genre myself, and it’s not an easy task. High Crimes is an uncommonly good offering within this genre; it did keep me guessing, and tricked me a few times. Plus, I always enjoy Morgan Freeman whether he’s the hero or the villain. Freeman is second-billed here, making his appearance as the “rescuing hero” 25 minutes into the film.

The acting and all the technical aspects of the film are quite good. So if Charity’s Place assigned filmmaking quality ratings—which it does not—this film would deserve a high one. The moral content is something else again. Naturally there’s profanity and sleazy situations. We also have on-screen murder, military cover-ups, and tainted heroes. The viewer must wade through a lot of sideline material in return for the privilege of being tricked.

Ashley Judd is Claire Kubik, a high-power attorney. Her husband Tom (played by Jim Caviezel) is a former Marine arrested for the crime of massacring civilians in Central America in 1988. Claire now knows that the man she’s been married to for several years, and with whom she’s trying to have a baby, has been living under an assumed identity the entire time she’s known him. Tom (real name Ron Chapman) admits that he was there when the massacre occurred; but he contends that is was his superior Hernandez who actually carried out the massacre, and that Hernandez and Colonel (now General) Marks have chosen him as the fall guy. The fact that the military has assigned a high-ranking, experienced prosecutor and a wet-behind-the-ears defender to the case indicates that Tom may be telling the truth. So, Claire joins her husband’s defense team and also recruits former military and now civilian lawyer Charlie Grimes (Freeman).

Content-wise, I found this film more uncomfortable to watch than many R-rated thrillers. The offensive/annoying material, mostly sexual, comes at the viewer from every direction. Grimes is good at what he does; but while in the military he was caught fraternizing with a fellow officer’s wife. Now as a civilian, he’s “friends” with and repeatedly defends one of the Marine base’s resident hookers. He’s also a recovering alcoholic. He enjoys antagonizing the military and being the “Wild Card” in Claire’s case. Claire’s trashy little sister Jackie (Amanda Peet) hooks up with the military defense lawyer. In an opening scene, Claire is shown getting a rapist a new trial on a technicality (a sequence designed to reinforce the film industry’s negative portrayal of lawyers, although it’s Claire’s duty to vigorously defend her client with every legal means available). In another opening scene, Claire and Tom drop what they’re doing and have sex in response to an ovulation tester (this is appropriate behavior for a married couple, and it’s handled discreetly but could’ve been a little more discreet).

There’s a scene at a strip bar involving many military officers, including those from both the prosecution and the defense in Claire’s case sitting at the same table. The camera work and editing is discreet so there’s no clear-cut visible nudity in this scene (nor in any other scene), but the entire atmosphere—the bump-and-grind music, the men’s transfixed faces as they stare at the dancers—is disgusting. We’re seeing how some of our country’s protectors supposedly spend their Friday nights: catching a little flesh, and perhaps also transacting unethical business of another nature at the same time. In another scene, Grimes uses some booze and his hooker friend to soften up a witness and get him to make a statement that he secretly records; to put the other man at ease, Grimes must get off the wagon and drink liquor himself. There are jump scenes: both Claire and Grimes are repeatedly physically assaulted by those who want them off the case. And then there’s the massacre sequence, including bullets-thudding-into-flesh special effects, looking like a grainy home video and played repeatedly.

There’s some sense of déjà vu here. Freeman does bring somewhat the same persona to all his roles. Judd and Freeman previously worked together in the crime thriller Kiss the Girls. And the premise of a husband with a mysterious other life is reminiscent of Judd’s film Double Jeopardy. The net effect of this film is disrespect for the U.S. military. Compared to A Few Good Men, the premise is an even larger black eye because the killings at issue here are deliberate rather than accidental, and because the cover-up apparently goes higher in the ranks. Grimes’ most memorable line, delivered to Claire, is: “Military justice is to justice as military music is to music. Wake up and smell the Napalm.” Unless this film and the novel it’s based on are rooted in a real-life incident—and to my knowledge, they are not—I think that this kind of slam against the folks who keep us safe at night is unwise at any time, and particularly in our present crisis.

Recommended only for mature adults who really enjoy this genre, and even then with reservations.