Grade: B-

Verdict: More good than great but Freeman and Judd make it work.

Details: Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman, Amanda Peet, Jim Caviezel and Adam Scott. Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual content and language. 1 hour, 55 minutes.

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Review: Any movie that lures Morgan Freeman onto the screen is worth a look. That's true of "High Crimes," though it probably wasn't the script that interested him as much as the opportunity to reunite with Ashley Judd, his "Kiss the Girls" co-star. Good for him (and us), since their easy chemistry helps this competent courtroom thriller over its rougher patches.

Judd plays Claire Kubik, a high-end, high-profile San Francisco attorney on a career fast-track. Happily married, she lives with her husband Tom (Jim Caviezel) in the kind of Marin County "cottage" that has a fireplace in the bedroom.

All that changes when Tom is abruptly arrested and shipped to a military prison. The charge? He's a former Marine who, in 1988, under another name, murdered nine innocent civilians in a My Lai-style massacre in El Salvador.

Less than impressed by the chipmunk-cheeked court-appointed lawyer assigned to Tom, Claire decides to take over the defense herself. That proves to be a problem since she's as fish-out-of-water as you can get. About the only thing a military base and her home base have in common is a lot of trim young men in tight t-shirts.

Claire needs someone to show her the ropes. So she looks up former military counsel Charlie Grimes (Freeman), a laid-back loser whose firm, "Grimes and Associates," means himself and his pet Golden Retriever. A recovering alcoholic and a self-described "wild card," Charlie's first lesson is: "Military justice has as much to do with justice as military music has to do with music. Wake up and smell the napalm."

Well, something smells. Soon enough Claire and Charlie believe they may have stumbled onto a cover-up that reaches into the Marines' higher ranks. Sure enough, at regular intervals, something scary or dangerous happens to one or the other or both of them. Conspiracy pictures tend to be like that.

Much of the movie is, admittedly, a standard-issue us-vs.-them duel of wits in which everything seems stacked against our heroes. However, "High Crimes" has a wild card of its own: director Carl Franklin ("One False Move").

Whenever he can, Franklin shifts the focus from the plot to his actors. Judd goes from self-assured, top-of-her-game attorney (her Mercedes SUV costs more than the little house she's rented at the base) to a woman who's frustrated, frightened and, most uncomfortable of all, often helpless. As she's shown in her previous movies, Judd can convey a strong-willed persona that has nothing to do with the so-called kick-butt women currently popular at the multiplexes. She's not a super-powered cartoon, but a recognizable human being who can't -- won't? -- let herself be beaten. (How much of this is love and how much is ego is a tantalizing thought unfortunately left unexplored.)

Meanwhile, Freeman has a fine time being "colorful" -- and then some. Since he can play warm 'n' cuddly with both eyes closed, Freeman lets that side of Charlie take care of itself while he toys with his character's wiliness and his weaknesses. Charlie's the sort of guy who knows all the angles, all the hookers and all the seedy motels -- the sort of guy who's always there for you except when he isn't there for you because he's fallen off the wagon. Freeman never allows us to dislike Charlie but he does let us worry about him.

"High Crimes" is the sort of MOR movie that Hollywood doesn't make much anymore. It's not brilliant, but it's definitely not bad and the leads are always good company. Think of it as mindless escapism for people who need a spring break from catching up on Oscar winners or checking out what's new at the art house.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution