It’s not often you hear about a military legal thriller rocking the multiplexes and taking home a huge box office haul. Nor is it common to hear anyone make reference to a military legal thriller made after 1992 nevermind quote one. You know full well which military legal drama has the most going for it: A Few Good Men. Every film that’s followed in its genre footsteps since has felt like little more than a legal drama written by someone with an odd affinity for the peculiarities of military law. It’s not their fault – the Rob Reiner and Aaron Sorkin duo that made A Few Good Men such a quotable powerhouse has few if any rivals of similar ability. Courage Under Fire, which followed four years on the heels of the Reiner-Sorkin trendsetter, managed to muster a little bit of repute on its own, but proved to be the first legitimate contender snubbed by the popularity of the 1992 film.
So where does that leave High Crimes?
Coming in a full decade after the movie which set the rule, High Crimes has all the traditional elements to make it an instant classic for fans of the genre. The finer points of the average court room drama have the lines smudged by the introduction of new military rules. It almost seems that you could cut and paste a story directly from a traditional courtroom drama and place it in a military setting and a director could finagle a whole new ending with the throwaway rationale of “military law is different”. And it is, so there is an element of truth to the new snares that a writer can throw in – but there are still some things that just don’t fly, even when you’re a legal outsider experiencing the new rules for the first time.
A romantic evening in Times Square is ruined by FBI agents when Claire (Ashley Judd) and Tom (Jim Caviezel) find themselves swarmed for reasons beyond their knowledge. When Claire, a lawyer with only a months until she becomes partner at her firm, discovers that her husband is being held under murder charges in military court she rushes to his rescue only to find layers of legal nuance awaiting her every move. Assigned to Tom’s case is a rookie military lawyer played by Adam Scott whose allegiance constantly comes into question thanks to his military background in a trial whose practices are increasingly shady and tied to darker conspiracies. Did Tom murder innocent civilians on a covert operation years ago? If not, why has he been hiding under an assumed name all this time? Why didn’t he tell Claire?
These are the questions putting Claire’s life in jeopardy (not Double Jeopardy though, as that was three years prior). Now she has people attacking her in her rented army base home, suspicious informants tantalizing her case and all sort of other distractions lying between her and the truth. Luckily for Claire, she has the help of not only Adam Scott, but wise man Mogran Freeman (as tried and true lawyer Charles Grimes) who has led a legal vendetta from within the twisted military courts for years. He may just be the experience she needs to catch her footing and find the truth.
While the performances are all quite solid and the writing superb, based on the novel by Joseph Finder, High Crimes just feels unimpressive amongst it’s genre co-inhabitants. For fans of the genre it’s a worthy addition thanks to its beautiful hi-def transfer and strong adherence to the themes of its category. It looks stunning. It sounds crystal clear. It’s just not the most unique of courtroom dramas.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The audio commentary by Director Carl Franklin has a few juicy tidbits here and there but otherwise it’s not worth the effort for the non-diehard fans. That just leaves the assortment of featurettes including a fantastic retrospective by Joseph Finder about being an author on the set of a film adapting his book. The rest are somewhat downhill from there with production pieces about filming some key action sequences and a nice little “how-to” piece on fooling a lie detector (related to a plot point from the film). Finally, as if to nail the point home that military legal dramas are different from traditionally civilian ones, there’s a little examination of the military legal drama as a genre.
"High Crimes" is on sale September 1, 2009 and is rated PG13. Drama, Thriller. Directed by Carl Franklin. Written by Yuri Zeltser & Cary Buckley (screenplay), Joseph Finder (novel). Starring Adam Scott, Amanda Peet, Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman, Jim Caviezel.
