Jagged Edge

Jagged Edge was filmed on HBO last night. Glenn Close acts the conscientious tough woman lawyer. She is defending a 'big' man who is alleged to have murdered his wife. I willc all him the husband. I walked into the film pretty late so I am not sure about the first part about how he contacts her or how she ends up being his lover too. So she is his attorney and his lover too. Defends him in court during day time and fucks him in the night. The typical Hollywood plot. She is a lawyer who believes in sending the guilty to prison and also makes sure that he is indeed innocent before she decides to defend. That is the Hollwood's conception of most lawyers, especially female. They need to have a cause and they believe in the cause to such an extent that they also have to become the accused's lover. Yeah, I am being sarcastic.

The accused goes to trial. It is a close fight between the defence lawyer and the District attorney. Witness after witness coems to depose of the adulterous character of the husband. On one level any new witness throws the defence attorney into anxiety that she may testify against the husband. On the othe rlevel our defence attorney is also upset about the promiscuity of the accused some of which he has revealed and some of which he has concealed. So the trial runs on these two themes. A note on how the husband is alleged to have killed. He masks himself in black top to bottom and brandishes a jagged knife. He ties the woman's hands and legs to the bed post and then plays around with the woman's body. He cuts nipples, makes incisions in the vagina and so on and so forth.

As the state's witnesses start streaming in the defence attorney begins to have her doubts about the husband. Witness after witness recounts the promiscuous nature and his plans of eliminating the wife. Glenn Close is not convinced of the husband's innocence. She is on the verge of giving up the case. At that point miraclously there appears a single line note asking her to bring a certain Julie Nelson as a witness. Glenn Close rushes to Julie Nelson's house and summons her as a witness. Julie Nelson testifies that eighteen months back she was assaulted by a masked man with a jagegd knife and a rope. She of course lives alone in a mansion facing the sea. Julie recounts the gory details of her nipples being slashed and so on. More importantly she points a guilty finger to another witness who is a waiter in a club with whom she was friendly. This same hunk of a witness has also been more than friendly with the deceased wife.

We have strident scenes between the DA and our lawyer who is now convinced that the wife was killed by her lover and not by her husband. The next day the jury declares the husband "not guilty". There are scenes of jubiliation and that evening Glenn Close rushes to the husband's house and spends the night with him. The next morning we find a rosy Glenn Close with the 'morning after' look fondly looking at the man. The happy man goes out on some errand and in the meantime Glenn decides to change the sheets on the bed. Remember women lawyers are lovers and also good housekeepers. We see an impressive closet with piles of clean sheets. As she is pulling out a pink sheet she touches something metal. Her curiosity is piqued. She throws the sheet aside and fingers the metal. It is a typewriter. She pulls out a sheet and types. The type is similar to the letter that she had recieved informing her about Julie Nelson. Now Glenn Close knows that she has set free a psychopathic killer. She rushes out with the typewriter wrapped in her coat.

Late in the evening the husband calls GClose to enquire about her health. Our lawyers spills the beans and says that she knows it all. Within a few minutes we have a masked man breaking the window in the lawyer's apartment and walks into her bedroom. Glenn CLose is freshly showered with gel in her hair and a white terry robe lying on her bed. The man in black and the woman in white. As he advances GClose pulls out her revolver and kills him at point blank range.

Yeah. Its a film. And we should not expect realist narratives here. But that does not preclude us from exmainig the assumptions of the film. For this see the next post.

Have to rush. Shit, shower, eat and rush out.