Before I bash Jagged Edge for having what amounts to one of the dumbest endings in movie mystery history, I want to comment on an annoying Hollywood courtroom drama observation. Why is it that every single movie with a courtroom as it's center focus, i.e.. A Few Good Men, Suspect, Presumed Innocent, The Accused, Jagged Edge, etc., always seem to have their days last approximately 15 minutes? Has anyone else noticed that the movie cuts to the scene inside the courtroom and there is one person on the stand and both sides ask them questions and then all of a sudden, after a shocker of a revelation about the crime, the judge calls for recess until Monday morning? Does any court case in these movie have a full day or week? I mean by all accounts, if you think about it, if this is how they examine and cross-examine witnesses, they would have about 20 or 30 witnesses a day take the stand. If you watch real courtrooms, you see both side keeping the witnesses on the stand for hours sometimes days before they dismiss them. I know these are movies and they want to move the story along, but none of these courtroom dramas are ever realistic.
******MAJOR SPOILERS - Don't READ ON IF YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT*********** Now, on to my thrashing of this piece of garbage which I have watched again this month after seeing it almost 20 years ago. Why did Jeff Bridges character, at the beginning of the movie, (we find out at the end that he is the killer), put on the black outfit with the mask if he was going to kill the only people in the house who could have identified him? This kind of audience redirection is so annoying because in real life the guy would have slaughtered his wife and maid and then faked his own injuries without the use of the costume. That first scene alone was enough to realize who the killer really was.
Now skipping way ahead, past the trial and all the over-acting done by these truly first-rate actors, we come to the ending. The part where the twist comes in. Before we even see the shocking piece of evidence that proved the accused was actually the killer, we know it will come out because the trial is over and the scenes are still going on. By the end of the trial it is so obvious that the film makers are trying to misdirect the audience into thinking it is someone else that you know who it really is. But my problem with this ending is a couple of things: first, of all the tracks that the killer has covered, why would he not have gotten rid of the typewriter? And even if he didn't, why would he leave it in his own house? Second, who the hell does Glen Close's character think she is by changing the bedding after she has just slept for almost 18 hours? Then miracles of miracles, she knows exactly where the replacement sheets are and behind them is the one piece of damming evidence that proves who the killer is. Because no one else in the world would have a typewriter like that.
OK, the shock has been put upon the "idiots" in the audience so we move to the dramatic ending. Glen Close doesn't speed away and run to the police or to her detective friend's house, she goes home alone and takes off all her clothes so she is now extremely vulnerable like all women become in these movies. Her killer lover calls and she tells this PSYCHOPATH, over the phone, that she knows he killed his wife because she found a piece of office equipment. Now Jeff Bridges, who apparently has never heard of double jeopardy, the constitutional amendment that states that a person cannot be tried for the same crime twice no matter how much evidence comes out after trial (just thought I'd help out all the "idiots"), decides that instead of either leaving well enough alone and dropping her like a bag of dirt, or going over there in street clothes to talk things over with her, decides to once again dress up in his black costume to presumably go over and once again kill the only person who could identify him...not really knowing, however, who she may have called to let know about this incredible piece of evidence she just found. Because, of course, he knows her so well that he knows she wouldn't have run to the police or her detective friend or the DA or the mailman or the homeless lady out in front of her house.
Complete garbage.
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