Jagged Edge (1985) from Tuna and Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

Jagged Edge (1985) is a wonderful courtroom thriller starring Glenn Close and Jeff Bridges.

Bridges is a San Francisco newspaper tycoon, whose wife is the actual owner of the paper. Nonetheless, he is a very prominent personality. Both she and her maid are murdered, mutilated by a hunting knife with a jagged edge, and Bridges in the only suspect. The DA, Peter Coyote, has political aspirations, and has a history of doing whatever is necessary, even if unethical, to get a conviction. Glenn Close knows this better than most, as she worked for him, and discovered that he had withheld evidence to gain a conviction on a case they wore working on together. The evidence proved the man was innocent. While she didn't come forward, she did leave criminal law forever, and took a job with a corporate law firm, the very firm that represented Bridges. Bridges requests that she handle his case. She will only agree to do so if she is convinced of his innocence.

Those who have seen this don't need more to remember the plot, and those who haven't should, so I will avoid writing a spoiler. This film looks at times like a romance, sometimes like a courtroom drama, and other times like a thriller. Close was excellent in the role, and Bridges played his character perfectly as well.

I loved this film the first time I saw it several years ago, and enjoyed it nearly as much the second time through.

Scoop's comments in yellow:

(NOTE: major spoiler - I give away the surprise ending, so don't read it unless you don't plan to see it, although Tuna even liked it a second time around, when he knew the secret.)

This 1985 script is the flip side of Basic Instinct. Jeff Bridges is a newspaper editor who is accused of killing his wife. He's friendly, charming, seductive, and nobody believes he really did it. Everyone believes that it's just a campaign strategy by the slimy local D.A.

Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct, Jade, Showgirls) did a good job on this script. His improbable plot twists and red herrings are as ludicrous as ever but ...

SPOILER AHEAD ...

He does everything possible to make you believe that Bridges didn't do it. Not only is The Jeffster nice and handsome beyond belief, but the evidence is tainted, the same D.A. has planted and withheld evidence in the past, the prosecution witnesses lie, and there is the usual "other suspect" who is a total slimeball.

Yet Bridges did do it. No sell-out, no happy Hollywood ending, just a simple fact staring you in the face in the final scene. And this delicious twist makes up for all the implausible and manipulative plot points. Plus Eszterhas was more careful than usual here, and there weren't any massive gaps in the logic of the script or in the motivations of the characters.

It is also competently acted by an excellent cast (Bridges, Glenn Close, Peter Coyote), especially Robert Loggia is the ultimate foul-mouthed seedy detective who doesn't ever believe anything anybody tells him.