In this Peter Yates directed feature film, Cher stars as Kathleen Riley, a lawyer whose newest client is a most unorthodox gentleman. He's a deaf and mute homeless man by the name of Carl Wayne Anderson (Liam Neeson) who's been accused of the murder of an innocent unarmed young woman. The lack of evidence she's got to prove that he's innocent is already making the case a tough one but Carl's tendency to, without warning, go into violent outbursts only complicates things further. The case is looking pretty hopeless, even for a lawyer with a lot of experience like Riley, but she's about to get some help from an unexpected source.
Assistance is coming in the form of Eddie Sanger (Dennis Quaid), a lobbyist for dairy farmers who just so happens to have been selected to be on the jury of Carl Wayne Anderson's court case. The guy knows how to do anything for a vote for his milk-related bills and he's willing to have that exact same gusto in his hunt for clues that could help Kathleen win her case. Kathleen's at first unwilling to accept Eddie's case since a lawyer and juror interacting like this is illegal but she changes her tune once uncovers some major evidence and her tune is further changed as this new found evidence has her wondering if Carl may just be entangled in a larger conspiracy.
In my first exposure to her as a lead actor, Cher actually works out fine in the role of Kathleen Riley. She's not doing incredibly exceptional work here, sure, but she delivers her lines well and she also works well with portraying the characters more dedicated side. Again, nothing phenomenal in her performance but there are glimmers of potential here that make me curious what she could do in the hands of a really excellent movie instead of a piece of boilerplate courtroom drama cinema like Suspect. Liam Neeson turns in similarly serviceable work as Carl Wayne Anderson though he gets stuck with mostly sitting behind a desk for the vast majority of the second half of Suspect, which feels like a waste of Neeson.
By contrast, Dennis Quaid is basically on another planet altogether in this movie. Dude's doing some kind of young Harrison Ford impression in his vocals and he's clearly channeling that dudes charismatic rule-breaker persona in his performance, but whereas Ford had a quick wit and a naturalism to his suave nature, Quaid just comes off as bizarre in his attempt to channel that kind of spirit thanks to him accompanying his attempts at being poised with a barrage of over-the-top mannerisms. This dude can't go a whole scene without breaking out some big distracting hand gesture and his attempts at showing Eddie Sanger is cold are the very definition of over-the-top. What seems to have happened here is that Dennis Quaid was aiming for, especially in his vocals, a young Harrison Ford but ruined that attempt with hand gestures straight out of the Jim Carrey playbook. Utterly ridiculous performance that just doesn't fit in with the rest of the movie.
Suspect has deeper problems than just a nonsensical lead performance though. It's overall a pretty slow movie with a number of poorly edited and paced scenes, especially a sequence set at a library that just goes on and on forever, that zap any potential tension out of the story. The unimaginative directing from Peter Yates only compounds the problems that abound in the lackluster screenplay by Eric Roth. When you're trying to make a courtroom thriller, a dire lack of, well, thrills becomes a very real issue and that leaves Suspect a noticeably empty movie despite Cher doing solid work in her lead role.
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