Artivels Undescribable Perfection

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Knox Morris Early morning. It's still dark. Rain plummets outside. The remains of a violent murder lay untouched. Detectives walk in and out of the building with coffee. This is the daily grind.This is the kind of atmosphere established in the first five minutes of Jagged Edge, a movie with a screenplay built like a thriller, textured like a noir, and laced with eroticism. For these reasons the movie is usually criticized as "manipulative," but this is actually why the movie works so well. No, as a critic I hate manipulative movies but if by the end I've realized that I MYSELF have been manipulated, even I know I have just seen a good (sometimes great) movie. We go to the cinema to laugh, cry, smile, and be sucked in the whole time. This is why Jagged Edge works. And no, this movie is not just about that. In fact, its more authentically perfect facet is in it's performances. Jeff Bridges underplays his character with such precision that throughout the movie you can't tell if he's a tortured soul or happy bastard, and this is all by his facial expressions. Glenn Close is just as excellent; she remains so perfectly womanly but her presence is like dynamite in a gasoline tank. She's conflicted & melancholy, despite not having much to be conflicted about, except the fact that returning to her job as a lawyer causes an emotional uplift in her life. One of the best scenes in the film is when the Bridges character storms out of his widow's room, and the camera lingers on Close for longer than usual. The sound of the rain cancels out everything. This is the personification of sadness. The director, Richard Marquand, knew that the sound would enhance the moment, but I doubt anyone knew how allegorical it is. Highly recommended for people who have ever thought about wanting to see a courtroom-drama remake of Body Heat directed by Brian De Palma. Be on the lookout for a Return of the Jedi poster, for which was also directed by Marquand.

Five legged dog 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.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU You will believe in it all along and at the end you will say you knew it all the time, but you will be lying and you must not tell a lie because you are under oath, and you have cut the cherry tree down, really and indeed.It is not another film on justice, on the "miscarriage" of a prosecution and the biased bigotry of a prosecutor who had a black man in one case and then the perfect social climber in another case. Strangely enough that prosecutor just neglects some elements that should have prompted an investigation for a serial killer, but then the case would have evaded his political hands (Elections! Elections! Elections!) and the FBI would have come into the picture, maybe, since they were just starting to speak of profiling in Quantico, Virginia. The subject of this film is how easy it is to manipulate American justice and even American judges if you have a good lawyer and if you can manipulate your lawyer into believing you. And that's the whole case. Add to that some unprofessional elements and you have the American trap for everyone instead of justice.The ex-prosecutor who is playing defense councilor has forgotten all her ethics in her bathroom one happy morning and she has the relation with her client that is strictly forbidden by all rules, mega rules and mini rules even. So she creates a pure hellish pit for herself and everyone else in this society, leaving a sociopath and psychopath social climbing serial killer on the run. I can't say more without deflowering your virginal interest for the end, but be sure we knew it all along and yet it is not exactly what we had foreseen and predicted in our mind, not at all even because. . . in my deepest and most trustworthy mind of mine we could have sworn it was a little more complex.Enjoy the suspended suspense that is blown up at the end into thousands of shattereens.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Raul Faust Movies which people try everything to find out who is the real killer are usually interesting. Nowadays they are all very predictable, but "Jagged Edge" isn't. It's a good movie in showing aspects of the professions of lawyer and prosecutor; I work for a local judge, and I can understand why Teddy wanted to leave this area so bad. Working with people's destiny is hard to our conscience and requires much responsibility. Maybe teaching in a law school is much less stressful. It's interesting to notice how good the acting used to be in 80's; the whole cast is very professional and I can't see one scene they're overacting. Jeff Bridges and Glenn Close steal the show and were probably very rewarded back when this film was released. It is also interesting to notice how they could live without a computer-- how on Earth would Teddy discover he was the killer if there wasn't the writing machine? To sum it up, "Jagged Edge" is a great and entertaining mystery thriller, do not miss it!