Under Suspicion (Terrestrial: March 2004)

Despite having vanity project written all over it (it was produced by Freeman & Hackman), this stagey little drama is well worth a look. Hackman is at his sleazy best as the rich socialite pulled in for questioning over the murder of two young girls on a Puerto Rican island, while Freeman is the cool, calm & collected cop out to extract his confession. Throw in decent turns from the slightly miscast Thomas Jane as Freeman's bullish cohort and Monica Bellucci's trophy wife and you get a tidy little character study played out against the backdrop of an important evening in the island's social calender.

Hopkins (the man behind the first series of 24 ) lets the actors do what they do best and as the tug of war goes on, we the audience are dragged along for the ride, first one way and then the other, never quite sure of what the truth is - mainly down to great acting & Hopkins' Rashomon -style flashbacks.

A nice little potboiler that'll have you intrigued 'til the very end.

RATING: 1/2

(c)Limer 2004