This movie looks like a TV-movie. But that's okay, because I was watching it on a TV set.
Tom Selleck plays Jimmie Rainwood, and aircraft engineer living in the seaside 'burbs with his wife, Kate (Laila Robins), who suffers the old 'wrong place at the wrong time' thing when two highly decorated (and highly corrupt) cops, acting on a tip, hit his house, which is on Oak Lane, mistaking it for Oak WAY, where the real drug deal is going down.
Jimmie's just taken a shower while he contemplates the salad Kate left for him in the refrigerator (she's working late) when the two narcs burst in. Mistaking Jimmie's hairdryer for a gun, coke-addled detective Mike Parnell (David Rasche) shoots Jimmie.
Not wanting to tarnish their "distinguished" careers, the two cops frame Jimmie and the legal system fails him and he winds up sentenced to 6 years.
While Jimmie learns how to survive in the big house from lifer Virgil (F Murray Abraham), his wife writes letters, harrasses people etc to try and get him out, including clever manipulation of Internal Affairs Detective Fitzgerald (Badja Djola), and the corrupt narcs do their best to keep Jimmie and Kate silent about their collossal screw-up.
A pretty formulaic prison-drama revenge-story, An Innocent Man has strength in it's performances and in it's realistic depiction of prison-life, particularly the tendency for some more experienced inmates to take pity on the "new guy" and give him some pointers so he stands at least some chance of surviving beyond his first week. And Laila Robins is really good as Rainwood's wife, remaining steadfast in her belief in Jimmie's innocence. And it steers clear of most of the jail-movie-clichés we are used to, like the "oh my god it's a shower scene...don't drop the soap", or the sadistic warden character.
This was never meant to be a dialogue-driven character study, nor a psychological examination of what incarceration does to the human soul. It's a revenge flick, a Tom Selleck action movie (you gotta love that he simply adds some 'handlebars' to that ridiculous moustache for his tough-guy jail-look) and a bite of after-dinner entertainment that delivers. Todd Graff deserves a mention as the hapless Robby, a repeat offender who offers Jimmie some initial tips when they first arrive, though he gets doused in petrol and set alight about 10 minutes in...he's really good though, playing the loser who knows what every prison on the eastern seaboard looks like.
F Murray Abraham is worth the price of admission alone. He has some great lines. Oh, wait...yeah and that flying leap Tom Selleck does out of nowhere to take down Det Parnell...classicly weird and entertaining. All in all, worth a look.
Tom Selleck plays Jimmie Rainwood, and aircraft engineer living in the seaside 'burbs with his wife, Kate (Laila Robins), who suffers the old 'wrong place at the wrong time' thing when two highly decorated (and highly corrupt) cops, acting on a tip, hit his house, which is on Oak Lane, mistaking it for Oak WAY, where the real drug deal is going down.
Jimmie's just taken a shower while he contemplates the salad Kate left for him in the refrigerator (she's working late) when the two narcs burst in. Mistaking Jimmie's hairdryer for a gun, coke-addled detective Mike Parnell (David Rasche) shoots Jimmie.
Not wanting to tarnish their "distinguished" careers, the two cops frame Jimmie and the legal system fails him and he winds up sentenced to 6 years.
While Jimmie learns how to survive in the big house from lifer Virgil (F Murray Abraham), his wife writes letters, harrasses people etc to try and get him out, including clever manipulation of Internal Affairs Detective Fitzgerald (Badja Djola), and the corrupt narcs do their best to keep Jimmie and Kate silent about their collossal screw-up.
A pretty formulaic prison-drama revenge-story, An Innocent Man has strength in it's performances and in it's realistic depiction of prison-life, particularly the tendency for some more experienced inmates to take pity on the "new guy" and give him some pointers so he stands at least some chance of surviving beyond his first week. And Laila Robins is really good as Rainwood's wife, remaining steadfast in her belief in Jimmie's innocence. And it steers clear of most of the jail-movie-clichés we are used to, like the "oh my god it's a shower scene...don't drop the soap", or the sadistic warden character.
This was never meant to be a dialogue-driven character study, nor a psychological examination of what incarceration does to the human soul. It's a revenge flick, a Tom Selleck action movie (you gotta love that he simply adds some 'handlebars' to that ridiculous moustache for his tough-guy jail-look) and a bite of after-dinner entertainment that delivers. Todd Graff deserves a mention as the hapless Robby, a repeat offender who offers Jimmie some initial tips when they first arrive, though he gets doused in petrol and set alight about 10 minutes in...he's really good though, playing the loser who knows what every prison on the eastern seaboard looks like.
F Murray Abraham is worth the price of admission alone. He has some great lines. Oh, wait...yeah and that flying leap Tom Selleck does out of nowhere to take down Det Parnell...classicly weird and entertaining. All in all, worth a look.