Another case of America taking a fairly well-known 'foreign language' film and remaking it for audiences who don't like reading subtitles and probably haven't seen the original, in this case Claude Miller's "Garde a vue". As it turns out, I haven't seen the original either so this 'did-he-or-didn't-he-do-it' thriller wasn't ruined for me by any knowledge of the outcome. This is very much a talkative, character-driven piece with Morgan Freeman as the police chief and Gene Hackman as his friend and now murder suspect.
Two young girls have been raped and murdered and Hackman has found the body of the second victim but is now the prime suspect in both killings and has been brought in for interrogation during which we get, not just the events surrounding the murders, but Hackman's life and marriage dissected with Freeman breaking down the fourth wall by entering into events as a character.
I found this device alienating rather than involving and the material itself somewhat old-hat but what just about redeems the film is, as has been so often the case, Hackman's performance. He strips his character to the bone making him a truly tragic figure in a film that aspires to tragedy but which never rises above the routine. I can only presume the French version was better.
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