AN INNOCENT MAN. Directed by Peter Yates; written by Larry Brothers; produced by Ted Field and Robert W. Cort for Touchstone. Starring Tom Selleck. Rated R.
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An Innocent Man may not be quite as bad as it will sound below. It's well-paced, running almost two hours but not seeming that long. And the charactere are absorbing enough that some of the movie's faults don't strike too forcefully until it's over.
The little logical inconsistencies and contrivances we don't mind too much. After all, it'e a rare drama these daye that can boast of a truly flawless plot. And the rough language and brutal action, though too much for squeamish moviegoers, are not out of line for fans of modern cops and robbers flicks.
But some basic implausibilities present a bigger problem. The story is about Jimmie (Selleck) who is wrongfully sent to prison because a couple of crooked cops (played with evil gusto by David Rasche and Richard Young) mistake his home for a drug house.
Tell me, though, who could possibly disbelieve Tom Selleck, straight-arrow par excellence, when he protests his innocence? A realistic jury would never have convicted him. He's just too nice.
He's too nice, also, to become as comfortable as he does in prison. There he meets another implausible figure, F. Murray Abraham as a veteran con. Now Abraham looks the part just fine, but his bearing is too aristocratic; he's still too much Salieri.
Selleck is an appealing actor, even when he abandons the laid-back kind of character he's played so successfully in the past. Director Yates has had some experience making gritty, suspenseful pictures (remember Bullitt?). And An Innocent Man's villains are first-rate.
Together these guys manage to hurtle some of the obstacles to good movie-making that the plot puts in their path. But a few still remain to trip up the moviemakers—and the audience.
October 11, 1989