We don't notice we're siding irrationally with Teddy throughout the nail-biting courtroom scenes and the simmering show-downs with Krasny, because not only is Coyote such a convincingly arrogant shitheel ("He had a charge sheet as long as my dick," he sneers at Close when she confronts him over Stiles) but Bridges is the perfect counterweight - tortured, enigmatic, charming. But because the characters are so well drawn - and well played - it never appears as anything less than a ruthlessly efficient nerve-shredder that binds you in an ecstasy of suspense until the very last frame.
#Jagged edge pro
Here, a couple of the plot twists are short on subtlety and the all-important diversionary scapegoat - a stud-muffin tennis pro - slots in rather too neatly. Like most Eszterhas scripts, if you put Jagged Edge under too powerful a critical lens the cracks begin to show. The trouble is, Teddy is never able to fully decide whether Forrester is innocent or guilty - and neither are we.
#Jagged edge plus
Plus she is irresistibly attracted to Forrester. The chance to ease an aching conscience over her unwitting involvement in Stiles' death is also a powerful draw. Krasny, campaigning for political office, is out to nail Forrester from the off.
#Jagged edge trial
First of all, the case presents an opportunity to exact high-profile revenge on her ex-boss, reptilian District Attorney Thomas Krasny (Coyote), who poisoned her faith in the justice system four years earlier by withholding evidence in the trial of an innocent black youth, Henry Stiles, who later committed suicide in prison. Several things serve to sway Teddy's decision. Glenn Close, excellent in a break-out role, plays disenchanted lawyer Teddy Barnes who is persuaded to renounce her vow never to practise criminal law again when newspaper editor Jack Forrester (Bridges) is accused of murdering his wife (from whom he has inherited the family publishing business) and finds himself in need of a hot-shot defence team. Or, to be a little more charitable to the old yeti (although after Showgirls he hardly deserves it), this slick, slithery little thriller is at least the blueprint for his subsequent forays into the realm of high-style crime drama with a twist - of which 1992's Basic Instinct stands as the most obvious, and most obviously derivative, example.Īll the Eszterhas trademarks are out in force - murder, money, obsession, sex and dangerous romance - but in this case, seven years before Sharon Stone proved she was a natural blonde, the lurching plot can still tighten a sphincter or two and the red herrings are served on ice. If, as seems to be the general consensus, Joe Eszterhas has only ever had one decent script in him then Jagged Edge is it.
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