Presumed Innocent

Eyebrows in the publishing world reached for the skies when the print run and advance for Scott Turow's first novel were announced in the trade magazines. (Even among established novelists, one suspects there was a lot of jealous drooling behind closed doors.) On celluloid, Presumed Innocent retains its status as an intelligent mystery. Harrison Ford stars as Rusty Sabich, a prosecutor who's assigned to coordinate the search for and eventual conviction of whoever raped and murdered a beautiful colleague (Greta Scacchi). This makes for a little tension around the Sabich household, since the colleague in question was Rusty's mistress--a fact that his wife (Bonnie Bedelia) is still coming to terms with. When a glass with Rusty's fingerprints on it are found in the murdered woman's apartment, the prosecutor suddenly becomes the number one suspect. Director Alan J. Pakula does a marvelous job of pacing, steadily turning the tension screw, and moving suspicions from one character to the next (and good filmgoers that we are, we bite) so that the killer isn't revealed until the final scene. In addition to Bedelia and Scacchi, the excellent supporting cast includes fine work from Brian Dennehy and Raul Julia. Strangely enough, courtroom dramas--which don't seem to be all that visual--have fared well on film, and Presumed Innocent joins the list of successes. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)