Under Suspicion

In San Juan, Puerto Rico, wealthy lawyer Henry Hearst is on his way to a charity gala with his wife, Chantal, when police captain Victor Benezet asks him to stop at the station. Hearst had reported finding the body of a murdered girl, and the captain wants to settle a few remaining details in his statement. The questioning is meant to take minutes, but as the night wears on, what began as a formality turns into a long and tense confrontation. Evidence links Hearst to the killing and to earlier attacks on girls from the city's poor neighborhoods, and Benezet presses him while the lawyer keeps his composure. Chantal is drawn into the interrogation as well, and her account complicates the picture the police are building. Around them the city is celebrating, which contrasts with the closed room where the two men face each other.

Stephen Hopkins directed the film, which sits between Tube Tales and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers in his filmography. Gene Hackman plays Hearst and Morgan Freeman plays Benezet, with Thomas Jane, Monica Bellucci, Nydia Caro and Miguel Ángel Suárez in supporting roles. The screenplay is credited to Claude Miller, W. Peter Iliff and Michel Audiard.

Released in August 2000, the film runs 110 minutes. It had a budget of 25 million US dollars and took about 1 million US dollars worldwide, a wide gap between its cost and its theatrical returns. On TMDB it holds a rating of 6.1 out of 10 from 546 votes.