Review of Under Suspicion (2000) by Corey N — 23 Jun 2007
While San Juan celebrates San Sebastian's Feast, recently-divorced and world-weary police captain Victor Benezet calls in prominent attorney Henry Hearst to clarify his statement about discovering the body of a girl of about 12, the second such murder in two weeks.
As Hearst answers unconvincingly, Benezet reveals circumstantial evidence: the lawyer is under suspicion. The interrogation strips away Hearst's dignity, public persona, and even his toupee, exposing a breech with his beautiful and much younger wife, questionable sexual predilections and a damning hobby.
Then, Hearst's wife volunteers information that confirms police suspicions. Is Hearst finally at the breaking point?....
As intriguing as the movie is, it's the ending that really suffers with problems. the main problem being that it doesn't know how to end, so from an amazing 110 minutes of vocal fisticuffs from the two leads, we are basically given a nonsense ending, which I guess Hopkins would have hoped would have the audience debating and so on.
The main question I was asking at the end of the film was, why? and what was the whole point? obviously people are going to have their own opinions of Hearsts reason, as I do myself, but a lot of people may feel a little cheated as the film does lead the audience up the 'big revelation' path, only for them to hit a brick wall.
But the film is great to watch and offers red herrings galore. Jane in particular was a very suspicious character, and threw me off the films trail at times, but the film is a lesson in acting masterclass whenever hackman and Freeman share the screen.
A genius part of film making is putting all the characters into Hearsts recollections, as I feel this would have been a rather redundant production if it was in one setting.
Maybe Hearst was taking his power and seeing how far it would take him, or maybe he wanted to set his wife free, the explanation is never revealed, but if you are a fan of the two leads, this will suffice.
This review of Under Suspicion (2000) was written by Corey N on 23 Jun 2007.
Under Suspicion has generally received mixed reviews.
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