Jagged Edge (1985)

Boring

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Jagged Edge is an entertaining enough flick (if you can call a movie about a particularly brutal murder 'entertaining') - but since it's release in 1985, chances are you'll have seen everything this movie has to offer elsewhere by now.Lead female character with a guy's name? Check. That'll be Glenn Close's Teddy Barnes. She's some kind of corporate lawyer but, after Jeff Bridges is suspected of murdering his wife, she's begged to come back to the bar to defend him. Believable? Hardly, but somehow the shoulder pads make everything OK.Falling for someone you shouldn't: Check. Close and Bridges know they shouldn't, but tensions ride high - making for a tricky lawyer/client relationship.Red herrings, twists, back-story shenanigans and double-crossing: check, check, check (and check). It all keeps moving at a fair pace, but there's something 'TV Movie' about the whole premise.Hidden gem: Robert Loggia's hilariously foul-mouthed investigator, Sam Ransom. Best thing in the movie: his inner anger and (extremely) potty mouth don't quite make sense, but he gets the best lines.Time hasn't been that kind to Jagged Edge - if there's anything hindsight can tell us some 30 years later it's that it's no classic! That said, it's entertaining enough and has a certain nostalgic charm. Some of its genre clichés are particularly worn now (not that Hollywood has considered retiring 'em!) but, all gripes aside, the last 15 minutes remain high tension of the good ol' fashioned variety.

This is a thriller that keeps you on the edge, gripping from start to finish, especially in the courtroom scenes. It's a story about defense lawyer Teddy Barnes (Glenn Close), who represents Jack Forrester (Jeff Bridges) - charged for the murder of his heiress wife, Page (Maria Mayenzet).While the plot objectives may appear overused by today's standards, the story to me is still fresh and intriguing, and the above average acting, especially that of Glenn Close, helps keep the move interesting. Robert Loggia as Sam Ransom was OK, but his foul mouth was a turn off. Jeff Bridges gave a rather monotonous performance.The courtroom scenes were definitely the highlight of the movie, with the back and forth between Teddy Barnes and the antagonistic prosecutor Thomas Krasny (Peter Coyote). The subplot of Teddie's ex-husband and her kids blended in well with the movie too.Overall, it's a good, thriller with some unpredictable moments.Grade A-

JAGGED EDGE is a pretty decent '80s thriller that mixes two genres to good effect. The film kicks off with a nastily memorable opening sequence in which a woman is knifed and murdered on her bed by a masked psychopath. From this point in, we're in BASIC INSTINCT territory, as a defence lawyer grows close to the murder suspect while detectives strive to make sense of the crime.The second half of the production moves into courtroom drama territory and at this point it really picks up with some quietly gripping scenes. It's not as gripping as the classics of old (for instance, BOOMERANG!, a film noir starring Dana Andrews that I recently watched) but it certainly does the job in keeping you watching.The film is well cast, with Glenn Close as the protagonist and not the bunny boiler (FATAL ATTRACTION did typecast her in the eyes of the public). Jeff Bridges plays it mysteriously, but it's the supporting cast where this really shines: Robert Loggia steals every scene as the foul-mouthed ally, Peter Coyote is a hard-headed rival, and there are minor roles for '80s favourites James Karen and Lance Henriksen. JAGGED EDGE manages to keep the tension going right until the final, fumbled reveal.

A prosecuting attorney-turned-defense lawyer falls in love with a rich, charming client who's been accused of murdering his wife and her maid with a hunting knife in this film,Jagged Edge.The story is about a taut mystery about an attorney who defends a newspaper publisher accused of murder.It stars Jeff Bridges and Glenn Close together with Peter Coyote and Robert Loggia. It is a courtroom thriller, written by Joe Eszterhas, and directed by Richard Marquand.When an unknown assailant gruesomely slays San Francisco newspaper heiress Paige Forrester, her husband and business partner, Jack Forrester, turns to corporate attorney Teddy Barnes for counsel. Teddy, who quit her job with the district attorney's office four years earlier over an ethical dilemma, has reservations about returning to criminal work; nevertheless, she accepts the assignment, convinced of Jack's innocence and eager to face off in court against her old boss, DA Thomas Krasny (Peter Coyote), who's about run for attorney general. With the help of investigator Sam Ransom, the recently divorced Teddy builds a strong defense for her client, though the work and her incipient romance with Jack cause strain in her relationship with her children. When Jack's innocence and his romantic intentions come into question, Teddy feels her life slipping back into a moral quagmire until a series of courtroom denouements set the stage for even bigger surprises.Slick and manipulative, the movie is nonetheless a vastly enjoyable psychological thriller due to the expert turns from the talented cast.Although the screenplay does what it can to throw up a smokescreen, but the viewer will probably be well ahead of the story's final resolution.It is best when it's seen with a minimum of analysis as it becomes supremely effective.