Saturday, August 10, 2024

Suspect (1987)

IMDb plot summary: When a homeless man is accused of murdering a Justice Department file clerk, a public defender is tasked with mounting his legal defense.
Directed by Peter Yates. Starring Cher, Dennis Quaid, and Liam Neeson.

Suspect is a Peter Yates film starring Liam Neeson as a homeless man accused of murder, Cher as the attorney defending him, and Dennis Quaid as the juror doing his own investigating. Quaid continuously feeds information to Cher as he discovers it, despite concerns that they'll be discovered for jury tampering. Yates continues to be a very eclectic director as I make my way through his filmography, but this is a return to fluffy crime thriller as we saw with Eyewitness earlier this decade. The story doesn't try to overcomplicate itself, and while sometimes that comes across as tropey, it mostly means that it's just a fun, lighthearted ride. The mystery has a satisfying ending, and that's mostly what I care about. The romance between Cher and Quaid is a lot less exciting, but fortunately doesn't take up too much screen time, so I can just roll my eyes and tune out of those scenes until they get back to solving the murder question. Overall, not an amazing watch, but I enjoyed it more than Yates' previous thrillers and had a good enough time with it.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Suspect > Love Exposure
Suspect < Anna Karenina (2012)
Suspect < The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Suspect > The Sword in the Stone
Suspect > Ben-Hur (1959)
Suspect < Talk Radio
Suspect < The Hunt (2020)
Suspect > VeggieTales: Are You My Neighbor?
Suspect < Three Thousand Years of Longing
Suspect > The Imposter
Suspect > American Outlaws
Final spot: #1577 out of 3937, or 60%.

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