Above Suspicion (1995)

Fresh and Exciting

Best movie of this year hands down!

Absolutely the worst movie.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

There is much to admire about the twists and turns of the plot of this movie. What makes them so real is the skill of the script in showing that they are the result not of plot contrivance but the mind of a genius at work.Dempsey is brilliant. At the beginning of the film he is asked by a superior to go over a cop kill crime scene that his resentful colleague Rhinehart had already gone over. As Rhinehart fumes at the captain's lack of confidence in his work, Dempsey notes that the dead cops badge was taken by the killer as a trophy and asks forensic to dust the spot on the ground where the killer would have had to rest his left hand to bend over the body and take the badge with his right. Bingo. Prints of the killer. Rhinehart seethes. Once again Dempsey has shown him up.Throughout the film he is like that, one step ahead of everyone else. Dempsey plans, anticipates, outwits, gifted with iron self-control and the concentration of a laser. It is rare that one sees genius depicted so well, so without peculiarity and eccentricity. I am moved by one final scene between Dempsey and his brother. Dempsey gently asks whether his brother Nick hates him. Nick, who is frankly an incompetent failure whose every action reeks of carelessness (Dempsey was shot in the first place because his brother screwed up the bust), confesses his envy. It's not that Dempsey has more than him. It is that Dempsey so clearly deserves it because he is so superior to him in every way leaving him no right whatsoever to feel envy. Just shame at his endless screwups. It was a good scene of how love can be tried by a stark difference in life lots, even when those outcomes are as just as excellence rewarded and incompetence punished.Another point. Others on this thread have seemed to imply that Rhinehart was motivated by bringing a criminal to justice. Justice had nothing to do with it. As the defense counsel truthfully showed it was Rhinehart's envious hatred of Dempsey that pushed him to create a case where no one else saw one. We saw in the very beginning how the captain openly preferred Dempsey's work to Rhinehart's and we saw that he had good cause to. Dempsey found the shooter's prints that Rhinehart missed.

It`s a poignant fact that only days after this film was released Christopher Reeve suffered a tragic accident and the headlines were about his last role as a paralysed cop which means it`s impossible to watch ABOVE SUSPICION without being reminded of Reeve`s real life situation so I`ll try and review this movie on its own merits While not being the greatest actor in the world the one thing I have noticed about Christopher Reeve on-screen is that he comes across as being Mr nice guy so it`s somewhat surprising to see him starring in a thriller featuring sex , violence and strong language . The plot itself is intriguing enough to hold the attention and revolves around a cop maimed in the line of duty wanting to set himself up for a murder so that his wife will cash in on his life insurance . It`s a fairly clever thriller and even though it`s a HBO production featuring sex , violence and swearing these elements don`t overshadow the plot unlike many other HBO films that drown in excessive violence . That scene in the court at the end made me wince

In a generally formulaic suspense drama, Christopher Reeves gives a surprisingly chilling performance as crippled, Machiavellian cop who seeks revenge against his brother and wife for having an affair. All other performances in this movie, with the exception of Kim Cattrall, are pretty mediocre, but Reeves fortunately carries the movie with his understated (and underrated) showing.

I do not consider myself as a movie critic by any means,but above suspicion with Christopher Reeves is probably one of the BEST films I have ever seen.Not only is the story so intense so is the characters.Setting aside the fact that Christopher really became a wheelchair bound person shortly after this film was made,Above Suspicion is a movie about a situation that could have really happened.A man paralized with a young boy loses hope.His wife is cheating on him with his own brother.Sounds like a simple story,but watch how Christopher deals with the sistuation.It is so intense,it is hard to look away...I give it 5 stars!*****