Suspect (1987)

It's embarrassing to see Peter Yates deliver up this hackneyed courtroom drama. But making a movie with this many clichés is easy, and I'm betting everyone got paid very handsomely for retreading every other legal meller you've ever seen. I knew we were in trouble when they started channeling Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson.Cher, one of the most abrasive and irritating human beings on the planet does underplay her character. She's nicely vulnerable, and she does reasonably well with what little she has to work with. Dennis Quaid plays Dennis Quaid. John Mahoney--sans toupee--is the evil judge (and a Republican to boot!). Liam Neeson, a force of nature in body, spirit, and voice, is a deaf mute.It's like John Belushi in The Blues Brothers--the sunglasses hide his most powerful tool.Oh, well. If this Suspect pops up on your Sunday afternoon movie, and you have absolutely nothing else to do, my advice is to curl up with a cup of coffee and a legal pad. Keep a running cliché total.

"Suspect" is a hugely enjoyable courtroom thriller in which a Washington D.C. public defender becomes convinced that the suspect in a murder trial is innocent and also that the case is unwinnable. There doesn't seem to be any way out of her problem until she's offered help from an unexpected source. Unfortunately, accepting the help on offer also involves taking some extremely serious and potentially career threatening risks.Shortly after a Supreme Court Justice commits suicide and a clerk/typist who'd also worked in the Justice Department is found brutally murdered, a homeless man called Carl Wayne Anderson (Liam Neeson) is found with some of the victim's possessions on him and is immediately arrested and accused of her murder.Burned out public defender Kathleen Riley (Cher) is assigned to the case and soon discovers that her client is uncooperative and prone to having violent outbursts. Communication with him improves gradually when she discovers that he's actually a deaf-mute but even then, she finds it almost impossible to find any significant information or evidence that could be helpful for his defence. To make matters worse, the trial judge Matthew Helms (John Mahoney) is unsympathetic to the problems she's experiencing and also seems more preoccupied with other matters as he's said to be the President's nominee for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.Eddie Sanger (Dennis Quaid) is a jury member whose interest in the case leads him to carry out his own investigations. He wants to assist Riley by passing information on to her but any such collusion is strictly forbidden and punishable by disbarment. The couple do, however, work together and find some pieces of evidence which reveal that the murder victim had discovered evidence of a high level conspiracy to fix a politically important court case in which the Supreme Court Justice had been involved some years earlier. Ultimately this information provides an explanation for the suicide and the murder and also leads to the discovery of the identity of the real murderer.Cher and Dennis Quaid both give good individual performances but are even better when working together. The differences between their personalities lead to some entertaining exchanges and the high stakes involved also create a certain amount of additional tension.Riley is overworked, lonely and in desperate need of a holiday. She's struggling to cope against what seem like insuperable odds and doesn't feel resilient enough to take risks that could lead to her being disbarred. Sanger, on the other hand, is a Capitol Hill lobbyist who's used to pursuing his goals in a ruthless manner and has no inhibitions about cutting corners or acting outside the rules if such actions are likely to produce the desired results."Suspect" has a good plot with many moments of real suspense and the solid performances provided by Cher and Dennis Quaid are also complemented by those of John Mahoney, Liam Neeson and Joe Mantegna.

Anyone who thinks that the United States legal justice system is fair and balanced has been watching too many movies. The poor and the marginalized get convicted and the rich and elite drive away from the courthouse. It's largely a matter of the size of the pocketbook. And it's still amazing how many innocent people are locked away with almost no hope of getting out. "Suspect" is how about a how a homeless man (Liam Neesom) and his public defender (Cher) find themselves in a case that has much larger ramifications than a simple matter of did a homeless person murder the victim for $9.The aspect that makes this movie a gem is the fine acting: Cher as the overworked and underpaid public defender, Liam Neeson as the deaf/mute defendant in one of his first major roles, Dennis Quaid as a sexy lobbyist (often messing around with congresswomen to get votes for his industry) turned juror turned amateur sleuth, and John Mahoney as the stoic judge at the trial. A lot of it is pure fantasy but the moments in the courtroom are actually very much like a real courtroom in its obsessiveness with procedure and protocol.The story begins with the suicide of a prominent Supreme Court Justice and the subsequent murder of his assistant who has been slashed to death. When police investigate the surrounding area, they find a homeless man sporting a knife and in possession of the victim's wallet which contained a king's ransom: $9. Cher is appointed to take the case, and Quaid ends up becoming one of the jurors. Because of the suicide at the beginning of the film, Judge Helms (Mahoney) becomes one of the people on the US President's short list to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. Helms requests to preside over the murder case to free up his later schedule in order that he be considered for the vacancy.Several scenes take us into the bowels of the homeless of Washington DC. We see a lot of lawyers, a lot of law libraries and a lot of knives. Every homeless person appears to wield a knife. Cher with the unlawful help of Quaid (lawyers and jurors in the same trial are not supposed to commiserate, let alone team up) stumbles upon some evidence that makes the case much more complex. A thoroughly enjoyable courtroom drama with enough action to keep you on the edge of your seat, and an interesting commentary on the justice system and how it handles the poor and the homeless. Unfortunately, public defenders are probably not as successful as Cher appears to be.

The plot is far-fetched and a lot of elements might seem questionable:the whodunit,Dennis Quaid's cynical character,the umpteenth courtroom drama...But everything vanishes when it comes to depict the Cher/Liam Neeson relationship.Both shine ,especially the latter,who ,being deaf and dumb ,has to express his emotions with his face .He is so good he seems to carry the weight of the world .He was once a man who had something in his life ,but he was betrayed by his country when he returned from Vietnam.How a man who gave the best years of his life (to mention a famous movie)can be treated like a dog ("nine dollars ,it's much when you've got to survive" says his idealistic lawyer)and end up one of the last lonely and wretched?Every scene where they are together rings true.And "suspect" becomes the story of a redemption:physically,morally and intellectually,the homeless man regains his dignity his pride and the right to be a citizen again.There is a complex plot ,dealing with politics ,but it's the luminous Cher and the very moving Neeson,desperately trying to communicate, who will haunt the viewer after the movie.