‘UNDER Suspicion” is a profound disappointment, given its cast and source material.
A stilted, tensionless update of Claude Miller’s fine if stagy French thriller, “Garde a Vue” – for some reason, reset in Puerto Rico – “Under Suspicion” contains what may be the only bad Gene Hackman performance on film.
On the eve of a carnival in Puerto Rico (the press notes explain that it’s “a small Caribbean island”), successful tax attorney Henry Hearst (Hackman) is brought into a police station for questioning.
Apparently, Hearst found the corpse of a young girl on his morning run, the second victim of two recent rape-murders on the island. But police captain Victor Benezet (Morgan Freeman), an old friend of Hearst’s, is convinced Hearst is the perpetrator.
Every time Hearst tells the story of his discovery of the body, it changes slightly but significantly. The interrogation begins in friendly enough fashion, but becomes increasingly nasty and intense, and both the suspect and the detective reveal more and more about their personal lives.
Eventually the cops bring in Hearst’s much younger European wife, Chantal (Monica Belluci, an oval-face, Adjani-esque beauty), who, it seems, has long suspected her husband of tendencies to pedophilia.
Director Stephen Hopkins (“Lost in Space”) illustrates Hearst’s recollections in a series of arty flashbacks with lots of needlessly speeded-up or slowed-down shots. But thanks to his lack of subtlety and a rickety screenplay by W. Peter Iliff (“Varsity Blues”) and Tom Provost, the tension never builds the way it should.
Freeman is as good as ever and Thomas Jane (“Deep Blue Sea”) holds his own as an aggressive, slightly dumb young officer. But Hackman is strangely mannered: For once, you can actually see him acting away.
The Puerto Rican setting allows some pretty views and attractive sets (Freeman’s police captain has a great-looking office) but also creates a series of false notes- including a strangely Anglicized police department.
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UNDER SUSPICION 1/2
This stagy, clumsy remake of the French thriller “Garde a Vue” features Gene Hackman’s first bad performance. Running time: 110 minutes. Rated R. At East 86th Street, Chelsea, Village East.