Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Emilia Clarke, Jack Huston, Sophie Lowe, Johnny Knoxville, Austin Hebert, Thora Birch, Karl Glusman, Kevin Dunn, Brian Lee Franklin, Omar Benson Miller, Chris Mulkey, Brittany O’Grady, Luke Spencer Roberts,  Lex Kelli, Landon Durrence, Nettie Kraft, Taxo Michaels, Joshua Mikel, Katie Campbell, Daniel R. Hill.

There is a fine line between the way we categorise and differentiate what we perceive as good and bad in a person, quite often those lines are crossed with ease, each human alive today is capable of cheating on their spouse or loved one but rescuing a hundred of his fellow townsfolk from a fire that threated to consume them all; what one person sees as an act of evil is in actual fact just the human psyche listing to its ego at the wrong moment.

For the officer who has to uphold the law, the policeman, the agent of a higher federal bureau, that thin blue line is not only there to separate them from being accused of wrong-doing, of corruption in the execution of their duties, it is there to avoid the temptation of becoming personally involved with those who see the line as fluid, of adding sexual risk to the investigation at hand.

For the vast majority of those charged with being seen as Above Suspicion, it is hoped they are not just seen as being clean, but they uphold the task with honour, bend other rules to catch a criminal, but never break the one in which sex can be used as a weapon against them when presenting a case.

Adapted from Joe Sharkey’s non-fiction in depth investigation into the murder of informant Susan Smith by her lover, F.B.I. officer Mark Putnam, Above Suspicion gives a more personal look for the armchair detective at how the relationship between the two, one built originally on catching a notorious bank robber in the old mining communities of Kentucky, bit one that quickly got out of hand for both of them as they embarked on a sexual association which would eventually cost Susan Smith her life.

To go down in history as the first F.B.I. agent to be convicted of murder is a stain on the character, to lose your life to a man who couldn’t see the line is nothing short of unpalatable for anyone who says that society in general just and moral. Murder is always abhorrent in any society, to be killed by someone who told you they loved you, who wore a badge and swearing to protect and serve is a horror that infects us all.

Whilst the film does delve into the type of first-person narrative that would make a film-noir take interest, delivered in the same conscious manner that was made famous in the film Reversal of Fortune, it does make it seem self-aware, almost dictated rather than structured to the point of offering a more conclusive view in which to draw the facts; a film that makes the dead talk without acknowledging the system to which makes it possible does not quite give it an air of infallibility it deserves.

It is to the relationship between the abused mother of two and the so thought sophisticated and righteous officer of the law in which the film maintains its standards, and alongside the feeling of neglect that is woven into the scenery and desperation of the town at every possible moment, the film stands up overall as one of honesty, the thin line of speculation only bent, never broken.

With Emilia Clarke and Jack Huston giving terrific performances as Susan Smith and Mark Putnam, and Johnny Knoxville stealing every scene he is in, Above Suspicion is a dark, sinister reminder that murderers are more than just names to whom we are scared off in our deepest nightmares, they are those we deem to be pillars of the law. Shrewd, aware, damning, Above Suspicion is a film that serves as cinematic warning to the wary and the whole idea of justice.

Ian D. Hall