Two movie reviews

(it's a two kind of a day...what can I say?)

Double Jeopardy is a thriller starring Ashley Judd. I was pretty excited to get to watch this movie because I had seen the preview for it once upon a time but had forgotten the title and starring actors, and never saw anything about it again. Thanks to someone in my book group, I found out the title of my long lost movie, and Netlfix sent it to my door yesterday.

So, you've got a beautiful husband and wife with what looks to be the perfect life. He takes her sailboating for her birthday, and she wakes up to find her husband missing and his blood all over her and the boat. She gets convicted of his murder, asks her friend to adopt her young son and take the $2 mil in life insurance money to raise him, and settles into prison life....only to discover that her friend has run off with her son, the money, and what's more.....her husband! She's been framed and left to rot in jail.

A fellow inmate enlightens her: nobody wants to hear your appeal. It'll be expensive and take too long and get you nowhere. Do your time, make your plan. And when you get out? Well, take advantage of the wonderful legal loophole: You can't be convicted of murdering the same person twice.

Once she gets out of prison she uses her smarts to track the guy down through a variety of name changes and locations, with Tommy Lee Jones as her parole officer in hot pursuit.

I'm guessing this movie didn't do well at the box office since I never heard much about it, but I'll admit that I liked it. It definitely had it's tense "thriller" moments, and got to me because the main character was a mother separated from her child. Not all of it is realistic. We could see a few places where the obvious was overlooked in order to make the story more interesting. Nevertheless, I'm glad I finally got to see it.

Raising Helen stars the adorable Kate Hudson as a young modeling agency assistant who inherits her sister's three children after their parents are suddenly killed in a car accident. The arrangement turns her life upside down and she seriously doubts her ability to be a parent to these kids. There are a few kind of unbelievable stupid moments, but overall it's a sweet comedy with lots of heart.