Suspect (1987 film)
This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (June 2015) |
Suspect | |
---|---|
Directed by | Peter Yates |
Written by | Eric Roth |
Produced by | Daniel A. Sherkow |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Billy Williams |
Edited by | Ray Lovejoy |
Music by | Michael Kamen |
Production company | ML Delphi Premier Productions |
Distributed by | Tri-Star Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 121 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $14.5 million[1] |
Box office | $18,782,400 |
Suspect is a 1987 American legal mystery thriller film directed by Peter Yates and starring Cher, Dennis Quaid, and Liam Neeson. Other notable cast members include John Mahoney, Joe Mantegna, Fred Melamed, and Philip Bosco.
Plot
[edit]A law clerk stumbled onto something while working on the transcripts of a 17-year old case. She approached the trial judge, who gave her a cassette tape before committing suicide. The clerk was found murdered shortly after.
A homeless man was accused of the murder after being caught with the clerk’s wallet and a large knife. To face trial, the homeless man was assigned a public defender, Kathleen Riley (Cher).
Eddie Sanger (Dennis Quaid) failed to get out of jury duty but impressed Riley with his extreme attention to detail. Riley did not believe the homeless man was the murderer and reluctantly teamed up with Sanger hoping to find the real murderer. Judge Matthew Helms (John Mahoney) wanted a speedy trial for personal reasons and denied Riley’s request for more time to investigate the death of a potential witness.
Riley discovered the cassette tape in the law clerk’s car and listened to the confession recorded by the judge who committed suicide. Armed with the tape, Riley revealed in court that Helms was the prosecutor fixing the case discovered by the law clerk. Riley further revealed that Helms was the real murderer.
Cast
[edit]- Cher - Kathleen Riley
- Dennis Quaid - Eddie Sanger
- Liam Neeson - Carl Wayne Anderson
- John Mahoney - Judge Matthew Bishop Helms
- Joe Mantegna - Charlie Stella
- Philip Bosco - Paul Gray
- E. Katherine Kerr - Grace Comisky
- Fred Melamed - Morty Rosenthal
- Bernie McInerney - Walter
- Bill Cobbs - Judge Franklin
- Richard Gant - Everett Bennett
- Paul D'Amato - Michael John Guthridge
- Thomas Barbour - Justice Lowell
- Katie O'Hare - Elizabeth Quinn
- Jim Walton - Helms' Court Marshal
- Michael Beach - Parking Lot Attendant
- Ralph Cosham - Judge Assel Stewart
- Djanet Sears - Message Clerk
Reception
[edit]The film's climactic scene (in which the actual murderer is revealed) was panned by Roger Ebert, whose review noted that it is "as if an Agatha Christie novel evaluated six suspects in a British country house, and then in the last chapter we discover the killer was a guy from next door."[2]
In the Los Angeles Times, film critic Sheila Benson wrote:
As it speeds toward its finale, there are plot holes the size of Manhattan potholes, although it is refreshing to have so menacing a thriller with such a relatively low level of violence. And there isn't a car chase from start to finish--amazing restraint from the director of Bullitt, and a positive point of pride these days. This is one to enjoy, but not to question too closely.[3]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 67%, based on 18 reviews, and an average rating of 6.16/10.[4] On Metacritic — which assigns a weighted mean score — the film has a score of 53 out of 100 based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[6]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "AFI|Catalog".
- ^ Ebert, Roger (October 23, 1987). "Suspect". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
- ^ Sheila Benson (October 22, 1987). "MOVIE REVIEW : PLAUSIBILITY BECOMES 'SUSPECT' IN DRAMA". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ "Suspect (1987)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
- ^ "Suspect Reviews". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
- ^ "Home". CinemaScore. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
External links
[edit]- Suspect at AllMovie
- Suspect at IMDb
- Suspect at the TCM Movie Database
- Suspect at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- Suspect at Rotten Tomatoes
- Suspect at Box Office Mojo
- 1987 films
- 1980s crime thriller films
- 1980s legal thriller films
- American courtroom films
- American mystery films
- Films about deaf people
- Films about homelessness
- Films about lawyers
- Films directed by Peter Yates
- Films with screenplays by Eric Roth
- Films scored by Michael Kamen
- Films set in Washington, D.C.
- Films shot in Toronto
- Films shot in Washington, D.C.
- American legal thriller films
- TriStar Pictures films
- 1980s English-language films
- 1980s American films
- American crime thriller films
- English-language crime thriller films