Scott Turow’s debut novel, Presumed Innocent (1987), tells the story of Kindle County prosecutor, Rožat “Rusty” Sabich who is accused of the murder of his colleague and former lover, Carolyn Polhemus. The tense legal thriller was as much a study of innocence and guilt as it was of marriage, fidelity, jealousy, rage and obsession. The bestselling novel was made into a successful film, by Alan J.
Pakula starring Harrison Ford as Rusty and Greta Scacchi as Carolyn. The movie was scandalous in its day for the graphic sex and the shocking ending. Ford, the action movie megastar, played against type.
He apparently insisted on the buzz cut so that audience would not “expect the Harrison Ford they’ve seen before.” Jake Gyllenhaal in a still from Apple TV’s ‘Presumed Innocent’ When David E Kelley, the monarch of legal shows including LA Law and Ally McBeal , and more recently glossy prestige telly, such as Big Little Lies and A Man in Full , announced his adaptation of Presumed Innocent as a miniseries, hopes were circumspectly up. The caution owed to Kelley’s recent productions which were all shine and sans soul.
And Kelley seems to follow suit with Presumed Innocent , which while shiny as a new button, is as engaging as watching paint dry. Presumed Innocent is in first person and Rusty is the passive centre around which everything happens. Rusty is an unreliable narrator, before it became a thing.
While following the main beats of the novel, a lot of it was par.
