Review of Suspect (1987) by Erno K — 05 Aug 2010

Your honor, I object to this movie. Sustained counselor, I want to see where you're going with this.

Firstly, the idea of Cher playing a lawyer seemed silly to me - it's why I skipped this for so many years - but she actually does okay. She frumps it up playing a liberal public defender stereotype and it's not too much of a stretch. She acquitted herself. If anything, I thought Dennis Quaid was more miscast as a fast talking corporate lobbyist. He struggles with the K Street dialogue he's given here. He's a good actor but he looks a little uncomfortable in a power suit. Of course there's a pointless love story subplot tacked on with no chemistry between the two, but that wasn't my major problem with this movie.

I submit that courtroom dramas live or die in the courthouse scenes and this one is just too blatantly cliched. There's the left-handed defendant, right-handed murderer thing which we've all seen. At another point John Mahoney's judge actually says to Cher, "If you pull another stunt like that I'll cite you for contempt so fast it will make your head spin." I could mouth it with him. Nearly every line in the courtroom scenes has been lifted from another movie or a Perry Mason episode. I think one scene was even ripped-off of "The Brady Bunch". The writing was so lazy I thought they must have a helleva twist ending up their sleeve. There had to be a reason this was greenlighted. Well, yeah, there is a twist, but it's not a very good one and I'm guessing that at least half the audience will have seen it coming. I did and I'm not that smart - it was just a matter of eliminating the obvious.

So, to sum up, I honestly didn't go into this movie expecting "The Verdict", but I thought it would be better than this. I'm a sucker for courtroom dramas - I rarely give them less than 3 stars - but this one was just phoned in. So with that, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case. 40% termaters. This court is now in recess. Bailiff, wack his pee pee.