Under Suspicion **½ (2000, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Monica Bellucci, Thomas Jane) – Classic Movie Review 3,702

The intriguing 2000 thriller film Under Suspicion stars Gene Hackman as a smug lawyer suspected of a girl’s murder, who becomes involved in mind games with the investigating police officer (Morgan Freeman).

Director Stephen Hopkins’s intriguing 2000 thriller film Under Suspicion stars Gene Hackman as Henry Hearst, a smug tax lawyer in a bad toupee, who is suspected of a girl’s rape and murder, and becomes involved in a series of mind games with the investigating police officer, Captain Victor Benezet (Morgan Freeman). Hearst is asked to come to the Puerto Rico police station to clear up a few loose ends in his witness report of the murder.

Ideally cast Hackman and Freeman do a wonderful job to put some much needed dynamism into this slackly handled crime drama, remaking French director Claude Miller’s much better Garde à Vue [The Inquisitor] (1981), adapting its original French screenplay by Claude Miller, Jean Herman and Michel Audiard.

But the story from a 1979 British novel, Brainwash, by John Wainwright (new screenplay by Tom Provost and W Peter Iliff) is very intelligent and the provocative topic is still red hot.

Under Suspicion also stars Monica Bellucci as Hearst’s wife Chantal Hearst and Thomas Jane as Detective Felix Owens. Also in the cast are Nydia Caro, Miguel Ángel Suárez, Pablo Cunqueiro and Isabel Algaze.

It runs 111 minutes and the video version runs 106 minutes.

On a budget of $25 million, it took only $1.38 million at the box office. It was released only in 19 cinemas in North America, grossing just $334,245. And it took a further $277,675 in the UK.

The cast

The cast are Gene Hackman as Henry Hearst, Morgan Freeman as Captain Victor Benezet, Thomas Jane as Detective Felix Owens, Monica Bellucci as Chantal Hearst, Nydia Caro as Isabella, Miguel Ángel Suárez as the Superintendent, Pablo Cunqueiro as Detective Castillo, Isabel Algaze as Camille Rodriguez, Jacqueline Duprey as Maria Rodriguez, Luis Caballero as Paco Rodriguez, Patricia Beato as Darlita, Soledad Esponda as Reina, Hector Travieso as Peter, Marisol Calero as Sergeant Arias, Vanessa Shenk as Sue Ellen Huddy, and Noel Oscar Alicea Colon as man in white.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,702

Check out more reviews on derekwinnert.com