High Crimes

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Stylish and effective, if slightly overlong, thriller.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Has some faults, but it manages to keep its audience either angry or jumpy from start to finish.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Comes across as gratifying, not grating: the same way the familiarity of a well-crafted whodunit is part of the book's pleasures.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This is the second movie Judd and Freeman have made together (after "Kiss the Girls" in 1997). They're both good at projecting a kind of Southern intelligence that knows its way around the frailties of human nature.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Satisfies a hunger for the basics: a decent mystery to chew on, a bit of juicy suspense, maybe a plot twist as garnish. The fare is all on the standard menu, but it goes down well just the same.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Franklin injects life into a flat format and has in the process done something nearly unheard of in Hollywood as of late: He's brought class back to the genre film.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Even if it lacks the finesse of Franklin's earlier work, High Crimes moves like a bullet.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's still a disappointment: a well-mounted and well-acted suspense movie that, thanks to its illogical script, falls off a cliff midway through.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The problem with High Crimes, acceptable though it is, is that it's not close to anyone's best work.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Franklin directs smoothly, but except for Freeman, the theatrics are pretty pro forma.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Ms. Judd commands the screen with consistent authority, and Mr. Freeman brings expansive humor to the role of a self-styled wildcard who's still dangerous in court.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

The biggest offense in the somewhat unimaginative but serviceable legal thriller High Crimes is that the venerable Morgan Freeman simply does not get enough screen time, and when he's up there, he doesn't have enough to do.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

For his part. Mr. Freeman shows himself, once again, incapable of giving a bad performance.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

This is very much a ''woman's picture,'' driven by a twin rudder of anxiety and empowerment.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Every minute of the film is trash, and director Carl Franklin seems to know it.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

It's hard to see Franklin's fingerprints on the material. It's as if he directed with his gloves on.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

This thing's got more plot than an Alliance convention. Unfortunately (to extend the comparison), not a whole lot of it makes a lick of common sense.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

It's terribly predictable and often risible stuff.

USA Today Mike Clark

It's no crime the movie has one or two endings too many, given that many thrillers of the past quarter-century have had the same. But Judd's latest is too harmless to be anything but a misdemeanor.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

While its blowout finale is telegraphed long before the first act ends, and too much else is just as obvious and bland, Judd, Freeman and Franklin never stop adding filigree. The big picture isn't much to look at, but the detailing isn't bad.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The story has possibilities, but you'll spot the big plot twists long before they happen, and the acting by Judd and Cavaziel is strictly by the numbers.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Judd has genuine movie star magnetism -- beauty, intelligence, presence and talent to spare. In the old studio days, she'd be Ingrid Bergman by now.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The chief pleasure of High Crimes (and it's a limited one) comes from watching Morgan Freeman, who can bring a sense of integrity to even the silliest thriller.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Undermined by contrived suspense sequences, a pointless subplot involving Claire's flaky, trashy sister, and a formulaic thriller ending.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

High Crimes does offer good, often sharp and funny work from its two stars. But you can't fake excitement, and it's a lousy feeling to know that the best commercial movie I can point you to right now is this shallow, self-erasing nonsense.

Slate David Edelstein

The strands in High Crimes don't coalesce. Those red herrings somehow take over the picture; the thing itself turns into a giant red herring.

Variety Robert Koehler

Judd now is top-billed, but her performance is so resolutely humorless and businesslike that Freeman's gruffly affectionate warmth becomes doubly valuable, though not nearly enough to lend this generic project any special character.

New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson

Film falls into the same trap as the book: a moderately interesting setup ultimately undone by an ending that makes the audience feel like fools for investing any sympathy with the characters.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

Washes away whatever unique filmmaking personality Franklin has.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Once, for no reason, Franklin whirled the camera around 360 degrees while two people were having an ordinary conversation. I suspect he must have been as bored by then as I was.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

A major disappointment that lacks the courage to follow through on its premise's themes.

Village Voice Nick Rutigliano

Secret trials and buried atrocities are no match for a plucky (and rich, and svelte) young heroine, least of all Ms. Ashley Judd, who eyebrow-cocks her way through Carl Franklin's witless High Crimes.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

All in all, High Crimes isn't worth the crayons it took to write the script.