Harrison Ford stars as Rusty Sabich in the 1990 courtroom drama Presumed Innocent. Sabich, a District Attorney is involved in an affair with a co-worker who winds up dead, with all the evidence pointing to him. Sabich must find a way to clear his name using the law, and other means, while holding his family together.
The film follows Ford as R.A. Sabich and his life after being charged for murder of Carolyn Polhemus, his co-worker and former lover. While there is one scene showing the beginning of the affair, there is really never much given to the audience to think that Sabich might actually be the killer. Throughout the film, with heaps of evidence pointing to him, Sabich claims he’s innocent and in a strange occurrence, is allowed to investigate in a murder case where he’s the prime suspect. I’m not sure if I missed something here or what but the person being charged for a crime, shouldn’t be allowed to help investigate the crime.
Ford is a little off type in the film as he’s quiet and reserved, yet not as charming as one might expect. Normally I see him the Han Solo/Indiana Jones roles and yet in this film he’s very sterile, very cold towards everyone. It’s an interesting performance but not one that ultimately works as the Sabich character is really never under suspicion by the audience.
This one was kind of a rough watch for me as there were plenty of lawyer posturing and legal jargon to understand. The quality of the experience will always lessen if viewed over a stretch of time instead of all at once and I was close to giving up on the film for the time being and starting over fresh. I was able to power through it though and I’m glad I did. The ending is unexpected and chilling, and really makes the movie worth checking out. While the film is over 20 years old, I feel this one would be really harmed by giving out the ending of the film but for those who’ve seen the movie, they’ll be able to appreciate why I changed my mind on this piece after the startling conclusion.