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Tommy Lee Jones shines in authoritative roles, but also has the self-awareness to excel in comedic parts. He is consistently the best part of any movie he's in. Jones's talent is highly sought after, as he has worked with some of the best directors in Hollywood. He has earned four Academy Award nominations and is still an underrated actor. Jones's ability to transform difficult roles into compelling characters is evident in his best movies. Replacing him in his iconic roles would lead to a decline in quality.

Over the course of a film career stretching back to the 1970s, Tommy Lee Jones has starred in dozens of memorable movies, improving each one with his inimitable presence. Jones has a reputation as one of Hollywood's go-to actors for world-weary authoritative characters, and this has helped him shine in Westerns, action thrillers, and dramas. However, Jones also has the self-awareness to use his persona for comedy.

A distaff "Count of Monte Cristo" -- with Ashley Judd making a bid for stardom as a vengeful mother for whom "murder isn't always a crime" -- Paramount's fall thriller has some slam-bang action sequences but won't connect big with mainstream audiences, though a relatively open field could help it run up a big score early.

Named for a law that says one cannot be tried twice for the same crime, "Double Jeopardy" is directed coherently by Bruce Beresford, but those hoping for a seat-grabber like "The Fugitive" will be disappointed to find a somewhat bedraggled Tommy Lee Jones showing up 34 minutes into the movie. As a tenacious parole officer, however, he helps the film achieve a crowd-pleasing level of hokum that bodes well for ancillary revenue.

Two of the three scribes who brought us "The Rock", "Double" writers David Weisberg and Douglas S. Cook, take way too many shortcuts to achieve their goal of creating a smart, sexy protagonist who would not only win money on the TV game show "Jeopardy!" but also literally kick her opponents' butts.

There's nothing like being wrongly convicted of murdering your two-timing husband and then locked in prison for years to change a person -- no secret there. But the film sheds most of its credibility early when once super-happy Libby (Judd) surrenders far too meekly and quickly to the oily machinations of our imperfect justice system after a fateful trip with her husband on their recently acquired yacht. From glowing wife of northwest businessman Nick (Bruce Greenwood) and mama of little Mattie (Benjamin Weir) to inmate, parolee and fugitive, Libby blossoms into a deadly lady with a mission and presumably our sympathies.

Her goal, as sketched by another spouse-dispatcher (Roma Maffia) in the joint, is simple. Libby was convicted of killing Nick once. Now she could do it for real in broad daylight and not even be arrested. Having learned that the scumbag is not dead and has taken up with her devious best friend Angie (Annabeth Gish), with Mattie making it a threesome, the lead has a while to brood and prepare for her conditional release after a quick six years.

With little nudges from sympathetic strangers and alert analysis from cynical halfway-house boss Travis Jones), out-on-parole Libby knows the risks but sets out to find Nick, Angie and Mattie, who have disappeared. Travis nabs her once, but she escapes during the film's best sequence, involving cars plunging off a ferry. On the lam, Libby hits up her unworried farmer mom for a roll of bills buried in the vegetable garden and heads for Colorado.

Her final destination is New Orleans, where Nick has a new name and same bland personality. Angie is no more, and Mattie is the focus of Libby's quest, with Travis risking his job to track her and becoming convinced that she might, by golly, be innocent. At a snob-choked auction, dressed in a slinky new Armani gown, Libby stops short of blowing his brains out and instead makes a lousy deal with Nick, which results in her making an unpleasant visit to the cemetery. Nick is definitely asking for it now.

Judd is strongest when her character is most vulnerable, with genuine emotional responses to the stress and shock of her rapid downward spiral. The actress is less convincing as a gun-toting, crazy-smart mommy, and the film becomes a drearily familiar tale with an NRA-approved payoff.

DOUBLE JEOPARDY

Paramount Pictures

A Leonard Goldberg production

Director: Bruce Beresford

Screenwriters: David Weisberg, Douglas S. Cook

Producer: Leonard Goldberg

Co-producer: Richard Luke Rothschild

Director of photography: Peter James

Production designer: Howard Cummings

Editor: Mark Warner

Costume designers: Rudy Dillon, Linda Bass

Music: Normand Corbeil

Casting: Deborah Aquila, Sarah Halley Finn

Color/stereo

Cast:

Libby: Ashley Judd

Travis: Tommy Lee Jones

Nick: Bruce Greenwood

Angie: Annabeth Gish

Margaret Skolowski: Roma Maffia

Mattie, Age 4: Benjamin Weir

Evelyn Lake: Davenia McFadden

Running time -- 105 minutes

MPAA rating: R...