Presumed Innocent (AppleTV+)
Falsely accused of murder, unemployed, sleeping on the couch… the only way life could get worse for attorney Rusty Sabich is if Taylor Swift wrote a song about him.
And that is not impossible. Actor Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays Rusty in the legal thriller Presumed Innocent, is an ex-boyfriend of Swift’s and is rumored to be the target of her 2012 breakup song, All Too Well.
Based on a best-selling novel by Scott Turow, this miniseries is a masterpiece of plot. Each twist piles up another layer of incriminating evidence against Rusty, so that soon everyone doubts his innocence: his wife, his children, his oldest friend, even the spectators.
The victim is his closest colleague in the Chicago prosecutor’s office, a single mother named Carolyn Polhemus. Rusty is assigned to the investigation and does not tell the police that he was having an affair with her.
Actor Jake Gyllenhaal (pictured) plays Rusty in the legal thriller Presumed Innocent. The victim is Rusty’s closest colleague in the Chicago prosecutor’s office, a single mother named Carolyn Polhemus, played by Renate Reinsve (right).
Based on a best-selling novel by Scott Turow, this miniseries is a masterpiece of plot. Each twist piles up another layer of incriminating evidence against Rusty, played by Gyllenhaal.
His wife, Barbara (Ruth Negga), knew about Rusty’s infidelity, not that he was still obsessed with Carolyn, to the point of harassing her.
The book was condensed into a Hollywood film starring Harrison Ford in 1990, but this eight-part series has much more time to build tension and savor each new revelation, building to a cliffhanger at the end of each weekly episode.
Each one subverts what we think we know about Rusty, even when we think nothing else can surprise us. First surprise: Carolyn was pregnant with her baby. Second surprise: he was with her the night he died. . . and his son has a video that proves it. Third shock: Rusty’s own teenage son was also out of the house that night.
All of this disguises the basic fact that Presumed Innocent has been on bad dates. She belongs to a time when single women who had affairs with married men were automatically treated as guilty of their own murders. Whoever is “innocent” here, it’s not Carolyn, discovered naked, bloodied and bound in her own living room.
Murderer or not, Rusty is a creep, and his penchant for violent sex only makes it worse. But viewers are expected to agree that this self-confessed stalker is a worthy hero, whose only crime was loving a woman too intensely.
Strong supporting performances help us ignore these misgivings. OT Fagbenle is magnificent as the newly appointed district attorney, a weasel of a man who drawls like Truman Capote.
Peter Sarsgaard, who is married to Gyllenhaal’s actress sister Maggie, plays Rusty’s former colleague and worst enemy Tommy Molto, a man who suffered years of professional humiliation as an office underling and is now out to extract every last bit of it. drop of revenge
Ruth Negga (left) plays the role of Barbara, Rusty’s wife.
Peter Sarsgaard plays Rusty’s former colleague and worst enemy, Tommy Molto.
OT Fagbenle (left) is magnificent as the newly appointed district attorney, a weasel of a man who drawls like Truman Capote.
Bill Camp (right) is disconcertingly convincing as Raymond, Rusty’s former boss, now his lawyer, who looks like a heart attack wrapped in a grease quilt.
And Bill Camp is disconcertingly convincing as Raymond, Rusty’s former boss, now his lawyer, who looks like a heart attack wrapped in a grease quilt.
The first page of Turow’s novel tells us that everyone who meets Raymond thinks, “He doesn’t look good,” and that was my reaction, too. Give that man a salad.
Seal of approval of the night: The first Royal Warrant for Britain’s most snooty supermarket was awarded in 1928 by Queen Mary, we learn at Waitrose: Trouble in the aisles? (Chap5). The King’s great-grandmother was a big fan of her honey soap. . . Bubbles with a whoosh.