Review of Presumed Innocent (1990) by Stuart K — 07 Feb 2013

Directed by Alan J. Pakula (Klute (1971), The Parallax View (1974) and All The President's Men (1976)) this is a suspenseful and taut courtroom thriller based on Scott Turow's 1987 novel, which was an immediate bestseller.

It's a very good film, which it's star showing a very vunerable side, it's a film which also harks back to those old fashioned whodunnit mysteries of the 1940's and 50's. Rusty Sabich (Harrison Ford) is a prosecutor who works for Prosecuting Attorney Raymond Horgan (Brian Dennehy), his colleague Carolyn Polhemus (Greta Scacchi) is found raped and murdered in her apartment.

Horgan lets Sabich take on the case, even though he'd had an affair with Carolyn years earlier, but had kept it secret from his wife Barbara (Bonnie Bedelia). However, things take a sinister turn when Sabich is charged with her murder, he turns to rival Sandy Stern (Raúl Juliá), to defend him, and they're facing Nico Della Guardia (Tom Mardirosian) and Tommy Molto (Joe Grifasi), but things get complicated when one piece of evidence that could incriminate Sabich vanishes.

It's a good potboiler, and Pakula manages to get a good tense atmosphere from the proceedings. There's a good cast all round, but Raúl Juliá just about steals the film as the charismatic, clever and savvy attorney.