Review of Presumed Innocent (1990) by Stephen H — 18 Mar 2012

Middle period Harrison Ford is the most interesting of his career. Far from the glorious heights of either Han Solo or Indiana Jones (well technically, not including the Last Crusade), this era is where Ford attempted to try a few different things.

Admittedly, most of the time he either played a cheating husband, possibly wrongly accused of some wrong doing...or he was a president, but that's besides the point. He wasn't flying the Millennium Falcon nor cracking a whip is what I'm saying.

This film does walk a very thin line between classy courtroom thriller and one of those typical late 80's/early 90's cheesy erotic thrillers. It manages to stay on the right side (for the most part) but it does contain many of the pratfalls of its sexy counterparts.

Ford is typically stoic, perhaps too much so, but the stand out by far is Raul Julia who shows in this film what a loss it was to the entertainment industry when he passed (although on the form showed here I can only imagine Julia's retirement would have included a lengthy stint on a Crime Scene Investigation show of sorts).

Overall, Presumed Innocent is a perfect late-Sunday night film, not too heavy, not too light...just right.