Knowing Darrell
To Alicia Foret (Suzanne May) Darrell Jacobs (Brad Blaisdell) is just one of the regulars at the coffee shop where she works who when he doesn't show up one day causes her to become a little concerned. But when one night he beats uptwo guys who were about to rape her she becomes more inquisitive and learns that Darrell was involved with the mafia but has since retired and is in fact dying from cancer. Things get complicated when Alicia starts meeting up with Darrell especially as her boyfriend Tom (Aidan Bristow) is involved in drugs and is connected to some dangerous drug dealers as it leads to Alicia's life ending up in danger.
"Suspicion" is one of those movies where a person, in this case Alicia, is being questioned by a woman detective or FBI agent who is trying to make sense of what Alicia's relationship to Darrell was as she is investigating a series of murders of known associates. In fairness it doesn't reveal too much during these interview scenes and so you need to pay attention to what happens during the flashback scenes to follow it to where the movie basically starts.
But here is the thing about "Suspicion"; not only does this feel like one of those low budget movies but made by someone too close to the story and as such forget that the audience doesn't know it as well as them. As such what you get is this story which sees Alicia befriending Darrell and ending up caring for him during his final days whilst we have her boyfriend's involvement with a drug dealer. But there are holes in the plot which means that at times the audience is left wondering not only how some of the story connects but what some of the characters motives are. On top of that you then have the cliche camera work from a camera which spins between characters sitting around a table or we follow Tom and his drug dealer when they barge into a home which is one of those slow motion tacking shots. It makes "Suspicion" that sad mix of being forgettable and routine.
What this all boils down to is that "Suspicion" isn't completely terrible and has some nice story ideas. But at the same time this is one of those movies where the person who made it forgets that the audience doesn't know the story as well as they do.
