JUDD A MISS WITH QUITE A DEMEANOR.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

ASHLEY JUDD struts her very smart stuff and Morgan Freeman has the rare opportunity to bring his playful side to the screen in ``High Crimes.'' Those are far and away the high points of this general-issue military courtroom thriller. The film's generic obviousness overwhelms the finer touches usually interesting director Carl Franklin (``Devil in a Blue Dress,'' ``One False Move'') provides.

Relocated from the New England setting of Joseph Finder's novel to various California locales, the movie also falls neatly - all too neatly - into the lady-lawyer-defends-man-she-loves subgenre. Claire Kubik (Judd) is an up-and-coming San Francisco defense attorney who revels in her ability to do things like getting rapist clients off on technicalities. There is no time, apparently, for professional regrets, since any down time is spent with her sensitive, hunky husband Tom (Jim Caviezel) trying to make a baby on their fabulously leafy Marin County homestead.

Then one evening, while strolling near Union Square, the Kubiks are jumped by a small army of paramilitary cops. He's hustled off to an Army stockade to the south and she's kept in the dark for national security reasons. But, lawyer that she is, Claire eventually learns that her husband, under his real name of Ronald Chapman, was wanted for murdering civilians in El Salvador when he was a special operative 15 years earlier.

Like a woman in love, Claire soon forgives her husband's teensy lack of candor about his background and insists on defending him at the court martial, especially after getting a gander at the Howdy Doody-like kid Embry (Adam Scott) the JAG corps has assigned to the task. But, realizing that they're both in over their heads, Claire seeks out a third chair - disgraced, recovering alcoholic Charlie Grimes (Freeman), who in his service days had a reputation for gleefully getting the better of military kangaroo courts.

This unlikely trio, with the occasional aid of Claire's irresponsible younger sister Jackie (a sassy, funny Amanda Peet), break every rule in the military and civilian law books as they track down reluctant witnesses and stage tribunal room showboat tactics. Of course, they discover a conspiracy that goes uncomfortably high up the chain of command. Inevitably, threatening moves are made against them by black-bag types and guys with Salvadoran accents. And this being a lady-lawyer-defends-man-she-loves movie ... well, I won't give it away. But you have seen ``Jagged Edge'' and ``Music Box,'' right?

Yes, it's all been done before. But you haven't seen Judd in a role that requires her to think on her feet as swiftly and intently as this film does. And Franklin astutely frames her in close-up whenever he can, which underscores both the actress' ability to suggest internal wheels rolling and the troubled woman behind the killer courtroom warrior's mask.

As for Freeman, it's great to see him as loose and freewheeling in a movie as he is in real life. The actor has often complained about being typecast in roles stiffened with gravitas. While that certainly comes into play during ``High Crimes' '' more serious stretches, what you'll remember most about the film is the joy Freeman radiates whenever Grimes sets to messing with people's heads.

HIGH CRIMES - Two and one half stars

(Rated PG-13: violence, sex, language, substance abuse)

Starring: Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman, Jim Caviezel, Adam Scott, Amanda Peet, Bruce Davison.

Director: Carl Franklin.

Running time: 1 hr. 55 min.

Playing: Wide release.

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Ashley Judd is a hard-driving San Francisco defense attorney in ``High Crimes.''