I watched the Apple TV+ adaptation of Scott Turow's novel "Presumed Innocent," thinking that I'd already seen the 1990 feature film adaptation, starring Harrison Ford and directed by Alan J. Pakula. The premise of the eight-episode miniseries seemed familiar - the chief prosecutor at a district attorney's office is put on trial for murdering a fellow attorney, who he was having an affair with. There's a political subplot, a lot of fallout with the protagonist's wife, and a great deal of time spent in the courtroom. We haven't had a really juicy courtroom drama in a while, and I was happy to find this one getting good reviews and a decent amount of buzz. David E. Kelley is the showrunner, no surprise.
However, the twisty story felt very modern and immediate. I figured that some parts of the story must have been updated and expanded for the miniseries version. Our lead, Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal), is married to Barbara (Ruth Negga), and has two teenage children, Kyle (Kingston Rumi Southwick) and Jaden (Chase Infiniti). We gradually learn about Rusty's relationship with the victim, Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve), his boss and mentor Raymond Horgan (Bill Camp), friendly detective Alana Rodriguez (Nana Mensah), and his therapist Dr. Rush (Lily Rabe). On the opposing side are Rusty and Raymond's rivals, Nico Della Guardia (O-T Fagbenle) and Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard). Molto in particular has a bone to pick with Rusty.
The drama that unfolds is everything you want a legal thriller to be - emotionally charged, full of surprises, and only minimally concerned with legal plausibility. Jake Gyllenhaal comes off as untrustworthy enough that there's real doubt about whether he's actually innocent. There are some excellent red herrings deployed, and in the process we get some compelling character work from actors like Ruth Negga and Bill Camp. I'd happily give Peter Sarsgaard the Emmy right now, for going toe to toe with Gyllenhaal in the courtroom, never letting us forget for a moment how badly Rusty has transgressed. If you enjoy big monologues like I do, the series has some excellent ones. My only real bone to pick is with the ending reveal, which feels like a bit of a misstep.
After I finished the series I decided to rewatch the 1990 film version, only to discover that I'd gotten it confused with a different legal thriller. This was a film I'd never seen before, starring Harrison Ford as Rusty, Brian Dennehy as Raymond, Bonnie Bedelia as Barbara, and Raul Julia as defense lawyer Sandy Stern, a character completely excised from the new miniseries. Pakula's "Presumed Innocent" is a much more faithful adaptation of the novel from what Wikipedia tells me, where the victim is an ambitious femme fatale, and Rusty Sabich is a much less ambiguous good guy. The mood is more sedate, though the story is just as engrossing. A lot of the plot has to do with the corruption of the legal and political systems, with Rusty uncovering multiple instances of bribery and malfeasance as he tries to prove his innocence.
The miniseries is more interested in examining Rusty's relationships with Barbara and Carolyn, and the psychology behind his actions. The film is far less interior, focused on unraveling a more traditional kind of mystery through an investigative narrative. The film has just as many good performances as the miniseries, even though the emphasis is very different. Raul Julia gets the big moment in the courtroom, Bonnie Bedelia gets the chilling last word in the final monologue, and it's always very gratifying to stumble across another Brian Dennehy performance I didn't realize existed. I obviously wasn't going to get as invested in the characters over a two hour movie as I was with the ones in an eight hour miniseries, but "Presumed Innocent" is a solid entry in the pantheon of '90s courtroom movies.
The two versions of the story are so different, it's honestly difficult to rate them against each other. And it's not often that I've been able to go in cold like this with multiple takes on the same piece of IP. I really enjoyed this experience, and I can only hope more creative types will take similar chances with other adaptations in the future.
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