Jagged Edge

Dir: Richard Marquand

1985

**

An intruder in a black mask ties up San Francisco socialite Paige Forrester (Maria Mayenzet) at her remote beach house and kills her with a hunting knife. He writes the word "Bitch" on the wall with her blood. Her husband Jack (Jeff Bridges) is arrested for her murder by Thomas Krasny (Peter Coyote), a district attorney. Jack tries to hire high-profile lawyer Teddy Barnes (Glenn Close) to defend him. Barnes used to work for Krasny, and she is reluctant to take the case, as she stopped working in himself in his cell," which distresses her. Barnes visits Sam Ransom, a private detective who used to work for Krasny's office as well. He stopped private investigations at the same time that criminal law after an incident with Krasny. Krasny runs into Barnes. He tells her that "Henry Styles hanged Barnes left Krasny's office, and it becomes clear that the Styles case was the reason. Barnes decides to take the case. While preparing for the trial, Barnes and Forrester spend a great deal of time together, and eventually sleep together. If this all sounds like a cheesy 80s murder thriller to you then you’d be right, that is exactly what it is. However, Jagged Edge is very much the wrong kind of cheesy. If I were to pick another dairy-themed method of describing I would probably describe Jagged Edge as rotten milk, the fragrant lumpy variety. I love Jeff Bridges and could watch him in just about anything but his performance didn’t work for me here at all, not because of him though, but because his character is so badly written. The whole film is badly written, it’s never clever, it just uses tired old tricks, the sort of tricks that Hitchcock condemned decades before. The killer uses a typewriter with a dodgy letter ‘t’, revelations about the case come out during the court hearings as if the case hadn’t been investigated before reacting the courtroom and the ‘bleedin’ obvious’ is constantly overlooked by each and every character. It is, at times, a frustrating watch. I can’t say I was that enamored by Glenn Close’s performance either, neither her nor Bridges were cast well. The supporting cast were pretty good, Coyote, James Karen and Robert Loggia’s performances were all fine, they were pros and gave their best even though I’m sure they knew the film wasn’t great. I had more fun however spotting the ‘before they were famous’ actors, Michael Dorn being my favorite. I got excited when I saw Lance Henriksen pop up but alas, his screen time was short lived. It is not a particularly thrilling thriller, it is full of clichés – done badly, and it was very clear who the killer was and what the final outcome would be. The ending is pretty horrible and it feels like a final insult when you realise you’ve spent (wasted) an hour and a half of your life watching it.

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Dir: Richard Marquand

1983

*****

There is a ridiculous notion that has been passed around by people who claim to be 'Star Wars purists' that suggests that the last film of the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi, isn't really all that good. Utter nonsense. Sure it recycles a few ideas from the first film but frankly, it was by far the greatest 'feel good' film of my childhood (The Boy Who Could Fly is a close second). If you ever should encounter one of these 'purists' then take my advise and remind them that if there was no Return of the Jedi then there would be no Slave Leia costume. That usually shuts them up. It may not be as great as the first two films, that I will agree on but it does tie up the trilogy quite nicely. It is strange that George Lucas would hire Richard Marquand as director though. You could say hiring an inexperienced director would enable him to have more creative input but it was his baby, he could have directed it himself. It's even stranger when you remember that he approached Davids Lynch and Cronenberg. As successful as it was, I'm sure neither director regrets his decision. Both are successful but mega bucks haven't quashed their creative talent like it has with Lucas. The original script is very different to the final film, unfortunately the Toy manufacturers do have a lot of say in these matters but at least everyone survives and thirty-two years later, the story could continue. Our heroes save the day with the help of a planet of Teddy Bears, seriously guys, what's not to love about that?