[Movie 297 / Day 313]
Harrison Ford is Rusty Sabich, a prosecutor and the right hand man of Kindle County Prosecuting Attorney Raymond Horgan (Brian Dennehy). He is married and has a child. He’s also had an affair with his colleague Carolyn Polhemus (Greta Scacchi). Although the affair is over and his wife knows and they’ve made up, he still obsesses over Carolyn. One morning, he gets into his office to hear the news that she has been brutally raped and murdered in her apartment. Horgan insists Sabich lead the investigation, clearly giving him a conflict of interest. He takes the job and brings in his friend Detective Lipranzer to head the case, leading the investigation in such a way that details of his and Polhemus’ affair stay hidden.
The first two thirds of the movie comprises mainly of the investigation, with the odd home scene thrown in to make sure we are aware that Sabich’s infidelity is still putting a strain on his marriage and the odd flashback to flesh out details of the affair and how badly Sabich handled the ending of it.
Then, in a twist of fate, Sabich suddenly finds himself accused of Polhemus’ murder and arrested pending trial. The final third of the movie almost exclusively deals with the ensuing court room drama. I won’t say much more about the plot in case I ruin a 20-year-old movie for anyone.
Suffice it to say, PRESUMED INNOCENT is a half decent thriller, although the investigation part of the flick seems to get bogged down in detail and as such feels very long. The court room drama is well directed and adequately tense, although it’s quite clear what the verdict is going to be pretty quickly. If you’ve never seen the movie before, the twist ending is very difficult to spot coming, and when it does arrive it isn’t really very surprising.
Maybe watch it if it’s on TV and you’re bored?
Rating: 
[ IMDB rating: 6.8 / 10 | IMDB link | Running time: 127 mins ]