SUSPECT
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1987 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: A plot that would have made a good
episode of PERRY MASON is expanded to over two hours on the
screen. There are some script problems, the greatest of
which is that there are proper procedures when a juror finds
he has evidence bearing on a case, but nobody seems to think
of them in SUSPECT. An okay mystery and courtroom drama.
Rating: +1.
Detective novels tend to have the detective who goes out on his own to solve a crime. That works find in books because the author can say in text what the detective is thinking. And what the detective is thinking is important to the plot. In film you usually are told what the detective is thinking in one of two ways. Voice-over first-person narration was popular in the 1940s detective films. It may even have become cliche. (A comedy currently running on cable called EAT AND RUN would be the final coffin nail for the voice-over if it was any better known.) The other approach is to send someone around with the detective who may or may not be a detective also. Holmes had Watson, Smith had Petrie, Chan had Number One Son, Nick had Nora. The more interesting the relationship, the better.
SUSPECT is a mystery/courtroom drama worthy of the old PERRY MASON show, but the gimmick is that the detective pair cannot be seen together. Kathleen Riley (played by Cher) is a public defender appointed to the case of a derelict accused of murder. Eddie Sanger (played by Dennis Quaid) is a juror with a quick and logical mind who finds he is better at defending the derelict that Riley is. Sanger has sufficient has sufficient reason to disqualify himself as a juror and have a substitute replace him, just as would happen if he had appendicitis. That would free him to help defend the charged man, which is clearly where his heart is. But that would mean there would be no story here. Instead he and Riley sneak around and she agonizes over the ethics of the situation.
The narrative line of SUSPECT is a little unusual. It begins with four widely separated plot strands that take a little while to wind together. So the opening is, perhaps, confusing or intriguing, depending on your point of view. There is a completely extraneous subplot of Sanger lobbying for dairy price supports on Capitol Hill, which broadens his character a little but could easily have been trimmed from this unusually long film. The final scene of the film, intended to lighten the proceedings, is miscalculated and is out of character for the serious lawyer Cher plays.
Cher is supposed to be a competent lawyer in an unusual role for her. She does better by the role than does the scriptwriter, who has her overlook some very basic aspects of the evidence, leaving Sanger to point them out to her. Along those lines, this is the third film I have seen in about a month in which a defense lawyer unexpectedly tosses an object to a defendant to establish left- or right-handedness. Quaid adds another boyish-enthusiasm role to a filmography already stocked with them. Joseph Mantegna, who did such a superb job in HOUSE OF GAMES is on hand in a less noticeable role as the prosecuting attorney.
SUSPECT has a reasonably good plot and some acceptable acting, but some minor script problems. Rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper
mtgzz!leeper@rutgers.rutgers.edu
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews