Presumed Innocent

Deputy prosecutor Rusty Sabich is made to take the case of his colleague Carolyn Polhemus, raped and murdered. The problem is that Carolyn was his lover and he tells nobody. The evidence soon starts pointing at him, and the prosecutor becomes the defendant. Alan J. Pakula directed, from Scott Turow's 1987 novel. Harrison Ford plays Rusty and Bonnie Bedelia plays his wife, with Brian Dennehy, Raul Julia, Paul Winfield and Greta Scacchi in the cast. The budget was 20 million dollars. It was shot between July and October 1989 in Detroit, in Windsor, Ontario, in New Jersey and in New York. It took 221 million dollars worldwide and was the eighth highest-grossing film of 1990. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 86 percent, with reviews praising the script and Pakula's focused direction while some found it short of the procedural atmosphere of directors like Sidney Lumet. The story has been taken up twice since: a miniseries sequel in 1992, a television film in 2011, and an Apple TV+ series with Jake Gyllenhaal in 2024. Who it is for: viewers who like courtroom thrillers of the late eighties and Ford playing a shaken man. Who it is not for: anyone who already knows the ending. The whole structure rests on a confession in the last five minutes, and once you have that the film largely goes flat.