Low points fail to slow fast-paced 'High Crimes'

In the past 10 years, Carl Franklin has directed three critical hits in as many tries: "One False Move," "Devil in a Blue Dress" (with arguably Denzel Washington's best performance) and "One True Thing." But all have somehow failed to take off at the box office.

MOVIE REVIEW

HIGH CRIMES

DIRECTOR: Carl Franklin

CAST: Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman, Jim Caviezel

RUNNING TIME: 115 minutes

RATING: PG-13 for violence, sexual content and language

WHERE: Alderwood 7, Cinema 17, Crossroads, East Valley, Everett 1-3, Factoria, Galleria, Issaquah 9, Kent 6, Kirkland Parkplace, Longston, Metro, Monroe 12, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, Pacific Place, Parkway Plaza, Redmond Town Center, SeaTac North, Woodinville 12

GRADE: B-

In his fourth film, "High Crimes," he aims a bit lower, and allies himself with Ashley Judd, who (after "Double Jeopardy," "Kiss the Girls" and "Eye of the Beholder") has become famous for starring in very bad thrillers that somehow manage to be huge hits.

The result is a decent-enough nail-biter that stands a good chance of being the big hit Franklin needs to stay afloat in Hollywood. But it's heavy-handed in all the places it should be subtle, and the critics who have supported him so faithfully are bound to be disappointed.

Based on a novel by Joseph Finder, it's the story of a fast-rising young San Francisco criminal attorney (Judd) whose charmed life goes all to hell when her perfect husband (Jim Caviezel) is charged with a massacre he supposedly committed in El Salvador as a Marine a decade ago.

Of course he's innocent (as only the wide-eyed Caviezel can be), but the Marine Corps won't believe the war crime was committed by his evil superior (Juan Carlos Hernandez), who is now being protected by the most important general in the Corps (Bruce Davison).

And when it becomes clear that sinister forces are intent on railroading her man straight to the gallows, she defends him in the court-martial, and promptly finds herself the object of harassment, illegal surveillance, beatings and even murder attempts.

Fortunately, she gets help from a slovenly, alcoholic ex-Marine lawyer (Judd's "Kiss the Girls" co-star, Morgan Freeman). He just loves to annoy the Corps, and knows his way around a military base and the best methods of foiling a high-level conspiracy.

As this plot gets even more complex and lively, the movie's biggest problem is a script that's just not clever enough to mask the inexorable approach of its Big Surprise Ending. Experienced moviegoers will know exactly where this is heading from the get-go.

And while it deserves some credit for daring to be cynically anti-military in a post-Sept. 11 environment, its Marines are all one-note heavies who seem colossally stupid yet possess almost superhuman skill when it comes to diabolically tormenting poor Judd.

Even so, few will be tempted to leave this movie early. Judd makes her teary-eyed heroine sweetly sympathetic, old-pro Freeman spins his customary movie-star magic and, even if it lacks the finesse of Franklin's earlier work, "High Crimes" moves like a bullet.