Presumed Innocent 1.3: Sterling Performances

I was struck by the sterling performance of just about every actor in Presumed Innocent 1.3 on Apple TV+.

[And here let me advise you not so much about spoilers, but that I saw the 1990s movie with Harrison Ford, and I'll try not to in any way indicate the ending of that, because I have no idea if this series will end the same way.]

Here are some of my favorite scenes in this episode:

• Every scene that  O-T Fagbenle as DA Della Guardia is in.  He has a strange, compelling presence that I've never quite seen before, which makes him instantly memorable.
• Noma Dumezweni as the tough-ass judge. Perfect
• The scene in which Rusty ( Jake Gyllenhaal) falls in love with Carolyn (Renate Reinsve), as she gently works to make a little girl who will be testifying feel safe 
• And, yeah, every scene with Bill Camp as Horgan, former DA and Rusty's attorney

But the truth is every character shines in this series, Rusty's wife and their children, the bartender at the beginning of the episode, Peter Sarsgaard as ADA Molto.  I can't recall another series in which every character was so vibrantly portrayed.

It occurred to me that Apple TV+ currently has two series -- Presumed Innocent and Dark Matter -- situated in Chicago.   The only thing missing from Presumed Innocent is maybe a scene with one of the Jasons in the background.

See also Presumed Innocent 1.1-1.2: Presumed Excellent, And So Far Is

See my reviews of Dark Matter

Presumed Innocent 1.1-1.2: Presumed Excellent, and So Far Is

I saw Presumed Innocent -- the movie with Harrison Ford in the lead role -- in 1990.  I shortly after read the Scott Turow 1987 novel from which the movie was adapted.  That was a long time ago, no blogging, and I was a devoted possessor of a Radio Shack M100.  I thought the movie and book were brilliant, with one of the cleverest endings, one of the most unexpected twists, I'd ever come across in a fictitious murder story.   I still feel that way right now.

So I was tempted not to see the series that just went up -- more precisely, the first two episodes -- on Apple TV+ yesterday.   But of course I did.  And as I was watching these episodes, I realized I had no idea if this new series would tell the same story as the novel and the movie.   And I realized that I didn't want to know beforehand, because not knowing that added its own level of suspense.

So far, if my memory from 23 years ago is ago is accurate, the story seems essentially the same.  Jake Gyllenhaal is excellent in the lead role -- Rusty Sabich, an ADA in Chicago, whose colleague and lover Carolyn Polhemus is found murdered.  Rusty is married, so he has some reason to want Carolyn eliminated -- to save his marriage.  

Movies and TV series of course are two very different media -- 120+ minutes vs. 8 episodes of around 50 minutes each to tell a story.  So I think there could be some riveting viewing ahead in the series.  Also, as of the first two episodes, I really liked Bill Camp, Peter Sarsgaard, and Renate Reinsve.  I'm going to review the series episode by episode, and I'll try my very best not to divulge any spoilers.

The Guilty: Scalding Tour de Force

My wife and I just The Guilty, a scalding tour de force of a movie on Netflix.  I'm not going to give away much if any of the plot, definitely not the crucial parts.  I will say that nothing quite seems like it is.  And you've got to stay with this movie til the end.

Here's what I can tell you: almost all of the movie occurs on the phone.  Other than Jake Gyllenhaal, who puts in what may be the performance of his career as Officer Joe Baylor, on 911 phone duty because he did something wrong in the street on his job, we see just a few other minor characters.  Otherwise, everyone else, including some very major characters, are voices on the phone.  This easily could have been a powerhouse play -- a play for the ages.  Just like the movie (based, according to IMDb, on a Danish movie).

Joe fields a variety of nuisance and crackpot calls.  And then gets a call from Emily, voiced by Riley Keough (The Girlfriend Experience and more).  We also get to hear from Abby (Emily's daughter), Henry (Emily's husband, voiced by Peter Sarsgaard), Rick (Joe's partner, voiced by Eli Goree who played Cassius Clay in One Night in Miami), Bill (Joe's boss, voiced by Ethan Hawke) and other notables.  But it's all pulled together -- and apart -- by Gyllenhaal's stunning performance, vaunting from exhausted sarcastic to high voltage shatter for a range of reasons.

Kudos to Antoine Fuqua for directing and Nic Pizzolatto for writing this unforettable package of narrative, Gyllenhaal on the screen, and other star power by voice.  I'm no particular friend of police on the edge, given what has been happening for multiple decades and is finally getting some long due attention.   But, well, see this movie and add it into your personal equation.

The Killing 3.10: Capital Punishment

One of the most powerful episodes in the entire three years of The Killing on AMC last night, a gut-wrenching roller-coaster of an hour in which Linden gets the AG to look into new evidence with an eye towards giving Seward a reprieve, then has reason to think that Seward did indeed kill his wife, then believes him that he didn't - as do I and I assume the viewing audience - only to see Seward hung in the end anyway.

Peter Sarsgaard's performance in The Killing 3.10 as Ray Seward was a tour-de-force and worthy of an Emmy in itself.   AMC wisely followed the episode with a showing of The Green Mile - wise because The Killing last night provided as eloquent a brief against capital punishment as you could find in television drama, the movies, and the real news.

We in the United States are one of the only countries in the world with capital punishment.  That and the ubiquity of guns makes a lot of the rest of the world think we're savage and crazy.  Hard to disagree with that.   DNA as evidence has freed many a person wrongly put on death row, but as last night's episode of The Killing brings home with a fearsome power, innocent people are still put to death.  If some Senators and Representatives in our government have their way, the same would happen to Edward Snowden for his patriotic whistle-blowing on NSA spying on Americans.

Meanwhile, the question still remains in The Killing of who killed Seward's wife.  We may never find out.   It looks like my theory that Becker did it is not gaining much traction, but I'll be watching the 2-hour season final with rapt attention next week.

In the meantime, here's a clip of Peter Sarsgaard from just a few days ago talking about the significance of fact-based movies in our culture, followed by a few words from me.





See also The Killing 3.1-2: Poe Poetic Po-po ... The Killing 3.3: Hitchcockian Scene and More ... The Killing 3.7: "Opiate of the Masses" ... Killing 3.8: The Kidnapping, and a Prediction ... The Killing 3.9: Suspect Elimination and Incompatible Components

See also The Killing Season Two Premiere ... The Killing 2.2: Holder ... The Killing 2.11: Circling Back ... The Killing Season 2 Finale

And see also The Killing on AMC and The Killing 1.3: Early Suspects ... The Killing 1.5: Memorable Moments ... The Killing 1.6: The Teacher ... The Killing 1.8: The Teacher, Again ...The Killing 1.9: The Teacher as Victim, Again ... The Killing 1.10: Running Out of Suspects ... The Killing 1.11: Rosie's Missing - from the Story ... The Killing 1.12: Is Orpheus the Killer? ... The Killing 1.13: Stretching Television

 

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The Killing 3.3: Hitchcockian Scene and More

My favorite scene in The Killing 3.3 last night was a quiet moment in the police station in the wee hours of the morning, when Linden walks into a room, finds Holder working, and joins him at the table.    The scene with a soft elegance shows the two drawing close to each other - professionally, at this point - and speaks to how good they are together as a team in the investigation of depravity.

The other compelling scene in the show depicts just the opposite - the searing depravity itself, in the form of Tom Seward, who has a razor on his person courtesy of it being secreted to him in a bar of soap.   Leaving aside for now the question who gave him the loaded bar - this will no doubt be an important part of the plot in future episodes - we find Seward in his cell, taunting prison guard Becker (played by Hugh Dillon, who was superb in Flashpoint) to get close enough so Seward can cut his face or throat.   This Seward is one creepy tough customer.  We saw him last week pound the priest's head through the cell, so we know what Seward is capable of.   Becker is called away at the last moment and saved - this time - but we've been treated to a great moment of Hitchcockian suspense (knowing a bomb is ticking on a bus, much better than than the sugar-slap of a surprise explosion).

Whatever Seward's guilt or innocence of the crimes under investigation - including the one he's on death row for - he is certainly a darkly, deeply charismatic character, and a couplet and antithesis in many ways of the guy released from death row on the brilliant new series Rectify.  After Becker leaves the scene, we find Seward choking on the razor, getting lacerated by it, and discovered by the prison guards.  Suicide attempt, accident, or some deliberate move to escape?

Like so many other things on The Killing, it remains a tantalizing mystery for now, with Peter Sarsgaard as Seward a fabulous addition to the tip-top cast.

See also The Killing 3.1-2: Poe Poetic Po-po

See also The Killing Season Two Premiere ... The Killing 2.2: Holder ... The Killing 2.11: Circling Back ... The Killing Season 2 Finale

And see also The Killing on AMC and The Killing 1.3: Early Suspects ... The Killing 1.5: Memorable Moments ... The Killing 1.6: The Teacher ... The Killing 1.8: The Teacher, Again ...The Killing 1.9: The Teacher as Victim, Again ... The Killing 1.10: Running Out of Suspects ... The Killing 1.11: Rosie's Missing - from the Story ... The Killing 1.12: Is Orpheus the Killer? ... The Killing 1.13: Stretching Television

 


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download The Killing season 3 on