Above Suspicion (1995)

Just surfing the net one day, I came across this movie on Youtube. I noticed it started Christopher Reeve before he had his accident, so I gave it a watch. As a TV Movie, I think Reeve should have won an Emmy or Golden Globe for his best portrayal I've seen him in. Reeve lights the screen on fire, making this the most exciting movie of the year.Reeve plays a well-respected and talented cop who is shot during a drug bust leaving him a paraplegic. Coincidentally, just days before (or maybe after) the movie's release became a quadriplegic in real life. Reeve suspects his wife is cheating on him with his brother and vows revenge by any means, not caring about his condition.There's only a few actors who are capable of giving a real evil stare that's truly scary. Al Pacino and Kevin Spacey are great examples. Christopher Reeve, with his piercing blue eyes that look through people, is at the same level of Pacino and Spacey. I really wish Reeve more blockbusters to showcase his acting talent and get the praise he deserves.

"Above Suspicion" has a very clever plot, above average acting, and maintains interest throughout. This plays like a good episode of "Columbo". Joe Mantegna gives a Columbo-like performance as the relentless detective who thinks the obvious in a murderer investigation is not how it happened. Unfortunately, in this case, his adversary, Christopher Reeve always seems to be one step ahead of Mantegna. I can't say I was totally satisfied with the ending, but under the circumstances, I can see where it came from. The film has plenty of nudity, violence, and edge of your seat twists and turns. Recommended. - MERK

This plot-driven story is better than I'd expected it to be. The story is this. An efficient, highly respected cop, Chris Reeves, must cover for his inept younger brother on the same police force. While doing so on one occasion, he is shot by the perp and paralyzed from the waist down. He's retired from the force and is cared for at home by his wife.Reeves passes through various stages of depression and becomes suicidal. He calls his wife (Cattrall) and his brother Nick (Kerr) together for a talk and tells them that he's concocted a plan to fake his own murder. He's taken out mucho life insurance with his wife, his brother, and his son as beneficiaries. He wants them to establish an alibi, then break into his house as if they were burglars, and shoot him in the head. Double indemnity will then apply and his family will be well off, and he'll avoid the shame of having killed himself.Now -- watch it here, because there be spoilers ahead, important ones.Kerr and Cattrall are not what they seem. Kerr is a shallow guy, a total failure at everything he's tried, despite his brother's help -- self absorbed and naive, and he's been boffing Reeve's wife for some time. Cattrall is the meaner of the two, self pitying, horny, and greedy enough to agree without reservations to Reeve's suicid-by-burglar scheme.The thing is, Reeves KNOWS all this and has set them up. The guns they've been instructed to use are unloaded, whereas Reeves' pistol is ready to go. Furthermore -- look, mein Fuhrer, he can WALK. Clumsy but ambulatory. So instead of their shooting him, he kills them and claims self defense.Everyone believes him except another cop, Joe Montegna, who can't quite shake the suspicion that Reeves has done exactly what he has in fact done. He comes in for a lot of dish from the rest of the force because they all hold Reeves in esteem. Montegna sticks on the case even though his superiors order him not to. His final attempt to prove Reeves is lying fails and he winds up in the slams and then dismissed from the force.Reeves and his son end up playing baseball together and living happily ever after. Reeves presumably will later learn to walk again in public. And there is that pretty next-door neighbor.It's a pretty good movie. I'll try to make my explanation for that statement brief. As in actual life, nobody is either entirely good or bad. They are all ambiguous characters. Reeve's younger brother may be weak, but he's unable to shoot his brother when he tries. Reeve's wife may be unfaithful to him, but she has a decent job, does what she can to help him, and apparently loves their son. Reeves' motives are understandable, but excessive by any measure. And the movie itself ends with a murderer getting away with it. Not only that, but Montegna, the only detective who sees through Reeves, must leave in disgrace.Some effort has gone into the plot, and into the dialog as well. When Montegna begins pushing recklessly into Reeves' status as suspect, the other cops deride him. A fellow officer sarcastically tells him, "You know, you're an obsessive compulsive. You got this obsessive thing. My wife always said you were compulsive. No wonder your wife left you. But the good news is -- you can get help." The photography and score aren't very impressive. The acting is good on everyone's part. The movie breaks the usual mold from which such movies are cast.Of course it's painful to see Reeves playing a paraplegic. His Superman movies were funny, but only because they were jokes. He was able to put in a good dramatic turn from time to time, as in this movie or in "Street Smarts." And makeup has given him an unfashionable haircut, the kind a cop might have rather than a movie star.Well worth catching.

*** MAJOR SPOILER WARNING ***It's difficult to criticise this movie as it's iconic (and grimly ironic) as Reeve's last film before his accident. As a thriller, it is generally very clever and well done, and it was good to see Reeve showing his adaptability as an actor by playing against his usual nice guy persona. However, once it was revealed that Sffwf't dibsbdufs jt gbljoh qbsbmztjt (move characters one backward in the alphabet to read it) I sat grousing for the rest of the film; I simply don't believe this could go undiscovered by his doctor.