rarematters Review of Under Suspicion

Under Suspicion (2000)

Ending "explained" in detail (Obviously spoilers).

[8/10 · 25 November 2003]

Okay, I commented on this movie once a few days ago, encouraging viewers to go and watch it and not try to learn too much before seeing it, so as not to tarnish their perceptions. So many are troubled by the ending and don't understand. No doubt, it makes you think and doesn't hand over instant satisfaction or relief from the conflict. Does life always. Well, here's the importance and brilliance of the ending. Henry is like many of us. Little parts of our lives taken out of context or thrown into the wrong context could leave us having to "explain." More than one part, public embarrassment, a mixture of betrayal and enough suspicion could put you in Henry's shoes. To highlight. The dog. The dog ran with him like most times. But he didn't meet the dog like usual, rather the dog met him on the trail. Even Henry first recalled it happened like always until he really remembered it hadn't. But the dog was there and the dog found the girl. The dog's owner says otherwise. Camille. Nothing really happened with Camille. But now, like the dog, it looks suspicious to investigators. His wife always thought so and made it part of Henry's nightly problem before this ever surfaced. Something so familiar to him, he blurted out a denial before his wife ever brought it to investigator's attention. Now they make it their business to discover all they can about this from her, and get her side naturally. Henry visited websites, innocently like many of us, but now the police see the pornsites he looked at while he believed things were private and now he must explain. He is a prolific photographer. As photographer's always do - he shot many rolls of indiscriminate film and not surprising (by itself) captured some of the victims at some point. The victims were public people (which is part of why they became victims) and Henry had an abundance of pictures related to these scenes around him. All this suspicion and pressure, and his wife and the "lengths she went to" as Henry said, when learning she dug through his darkroom and discovered photos he didn't even realize he owned. Then she gave them to the police. He stands as the only one saying aside from all this, he didn't do the murders. He looks at the mirror and tells his wife to "come in here and face me." Given all his thoughts and feelings, even he decides to go along with everyone. He gives up. Doesn't care. He's the last one to join the parade. It all played out and he tosses his hand. Begins his false confession which is fueled by facts he learned from listening to the interrogators over the last few hours. (He never suspected his wife did the murders as some have said). Then an undisputable circumstance rears it's head and suddenly everyone pulls the weight of suspicion away from Henry. For the first time they are on his side. He's "free" but really far worse off than he ever was because of all the things he realized about his life. He's has to accept who and where he is, whether deserved or undeserved. As viewer's we became an integral part of directing suspicion towards Henry, we too began thinking and agreeing about his guilt. We too, wanted to find the shred of evidence that made him "100% guilty." It isn't there, nor was it ever - just like Henry said. The character's in the film are deflated, confused and unhappy with the ending - just like you are!!