The name Peter Yates is not bandied around a great deal amongst movie fans, which is quite surprising since he is the director who brought us such fondly remembered classics as Summer Holiday, Bullitt and The Hot Rock. Yates is also behind the camera on this Tom Selleck vehicle, but there's little here to remind one of the halcyon days of his earlier classics. If anything, An Innocent Man has about it the air of a competent but totally uninspired made-for-TV prison drama (in actual fact, this is not a TV-movie but a major big-screen release, complete with relatively big stars). It is not a bad film, merely one that never rises above mediocrity at any point.
Airline mechanic Jimmie Rainwood (Tom Selleck) leads a normal life. He works nine-to-five like any ordinary citizen, pays his bills, and loves his wife Kate (Laila Robins). His existence is shattered when two narcotics cops mistakenly raid his house and shoot him. The cops, Mike Parnell (David Rasche) and Danny Scalise (Richard Young), have been holding back drugs from some of their busts and selling them privately for big bucks. They were only in Rainwood's house because of an address mix-up linked to another bust. Fearing their profitable scam might be exposed unless they take drastic action, Scalise and Parnell plant narcotics in Rainwood's house and make it look like they were there on a legitimate raid. As a result, Jimmie is convicted of a crime he never committed and sent to a tough penitentiary for several years. While her husband is inside, Kate works tirelessly to clear his name, bringing in honest cop John Fitzgerald (Badja Djola) to investigate her suspicions of police corruption. But it's a slow process, and in the meantime Jimmie must learn to survive in the dangerous prison environment. A tough, experienced convict called Virgil Cane (F. Murray Abraham) teaches him how to cope, but Rainwood's peaceful life prior to imprisonment makes him struggle to adapt to his new surroundings. After many hardships including having to kill a prison bully Jimmie is finally released. Hardened by his experience, he sets out to track down the dirty duo that set him up in the first place.
There's nothing hugely wrong with the basic story (scripted by Larry Brothers) other than the fact that it is somewhat familiar. The problems with An Innocent Man are more to do with issues regarding the general handling of the film. In the acting stakes no-one gives a really strong performance; in the music department Howard Shore provides a bland, lazy score; photographically the film is totally conventional and "play-safe"; and in the directing stakes, Yates goes about his job in strictly by-the-numbers fashion. When thinking about the film afterwards, words like "inconsequential", "unmemorable", "unremarkable" and "routine" spring to mind. Nothing about it stands out in a good nor bad way it's just typical 5-out-of-10 fodder from first frame to last. One of the main purposes of the film seems to be to give the star a more hard-edged role than usual, but apart from dollops of foul language and extra fake blood during the fighting sequences, it's still Tom Selleck playing Tom Selleck. An Innocent Man is easy to watch - it's even easier to forget.
Airline mechanic Jimmie Rainwood (Tom Selleck) leads a normal life. He works nine-to-five like any ordinary citizen, pays his bills, and loves his wife Kate (Laila Robins). His existence is shattered when two narcotics cops mistakenly raid his house and shoot him. The cops, Mike Parnell (David Rasche) and Danny Scalise (Richard Young), have been holding back drugs from some of their busts and selling them privately for big bucks. They were only in Rainwood's house because of an address mix-up linked to another bust. Fearing their profitable scam might be exposed unless they take drastic action, Scalise and Parnell plant narcotics in Rainwood's house and make it look like they were there on a legitimate raid. As a result, Jimmie is convicted of a crime he never committed and sent to a tough penitentiary for several years. While her husband is inside, Kate works tirelessly to clear his name, bringing in honest cop John Fitzgerald (Badja Djola) to investigate her suspicions of police corruption. But it's a slow process, and in the meantime Jimmie must learn to survive in the dangerous prison environment. A tough, experienced convict called Virgil Cane (F. Murray Abraham) teaches him how to cope, but Rainwood's peaceful life prior to imprisonment makes him struggle to adapt to his new surroundings. After many hardships including having to kill a prison bully Jimmie is finally released. Hardened by his experience, he sets out to track down the dirty duo that set him up in the first place.
There's nothing hugely wrong with the basic story (scripted by Larry Brothers) other than the fact that it is somewhat familiar. The problems with An Innocent Man are more to do with issues regarding the general handling of the film. In the acting stakes no-one gives a really strong performance; in the music department Howard Shore provides a bland, lazy score; photographically the film is totally conventional and "play-safe"; and in the directing stakes, Yates goes about his job in strictly by-the-numbers fashion. When thinking about the film afterwards, words like "inconsequential", "unmemorable", "unremarkable" and "routine" spring to mind. Nothing about it stands out in a good nor bad way it's just typical 5-out-of-10 fodder from first frame to last. One of the main purposes of the film seems to be to give the star a more hard-edged role than usual, but apart from dollops of foul language and extra fake blood during the fighting sequences, it's still Tom Selleck playing Tom Selleck. An Innocent Man is easy to watch - it's even easier to forget.