Chicago attorney/author Scott Turow created such buzz with his 1987 legal thriller “Presumed Innocent” that Hollywood engaged in a spirited bidding war for the rights to the novel a year before it was published. The great Alan J. Pakula (“Klute,” “All the President’s Men,” “Sophie’s Choice”) eventually signed on to direct, with Harrison Ford starring as the prosecutor Rusty Sabich, who is accused of murdering his colleague and mistress. Set in the fictional Kindle County (thought to be based on Cook County), “Presumed Innocent” was filmed primarily in Detroit and Canada and became a resounding critical and commercial smash. (I’d argue it features one of Ford’s top three performances, alongside “Witness” and “Blade Runner.”)
It’s practically Hollywood Law that every film and TV series from the 1980s and 1990s will get the reboot treatment, so here comes the Apple TV+ limited series “Presumed Innocent” with Jake Gyllenhaal taking on the role of Rusty, on the heels of Gyllenhaal taking on the Patrick Swayze part in the recent remake of “Road House.”
Created by the prolific David E. Kelley and stretched over eight episodes (seven of which were made available to critics), the updated “Presumed Innocent” is a well-crafted but overlong and unnecessary revamping of a movie that was just about perfect in its execution, right up until the famous twist ending. Though containing flashes of brilliant acting from the ensemble cast and filled with interesting visuals that appear to be inspired by the palette of David Fincher films such as “Zodiac” and “Se7en,” this is a dour, overly talky and meandering series that takes frequent and often frustratingly murky detours. (If you want to see Gyllenhaal shine in far superior psychological thrillers, he has quite the canon, from the aforementioned “Zodiac” to “Source Code” to the Denis Villenueve films “Enemy” and “Prisoners.”)
In “Presumed Innocent” 2.0, the setting is identified as Chicago — but the series actually was filmed in Los Angeles, with a second unit shooting the obligatory transition scenes of the skyline and the L and Michigan Avenue. The premiere episode finds Gyllenhaal’s Rozat “Rusty” Sabich, the chief deputy prosecutor in the state’s attorney’s office, enjoying family time at home with his wife, Barbara (Ruth Negga), their son Kyle (Kingston Rumi Southwick) and their daughter Jaden (Chase Infiniti) when Rusty’s boss, state’s attorney Raymond Horgan (Bill Camp), calls with shocking news: their colleague, the ambitious prosecutor Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve), has been brutally murdered in her home.
Horgan’s opponent in the upcoming election, the smooth and opportunistic Nico Della Guardia (O-T Fagbenle) and his oily second, Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard), seize the opportunity for publicity, with Della Guardia holding a press conference and proclaiming, “We’re all quite rightly stunned and rattled by such a grotesque and heartless act of violence. ... It is difficult for the citizenry to feel safe when we can’t even protect our own prosecutors. We have to do better.”
Things get messy fast when Della Guardia wins the election and hands Rusty’s caseload to Tommy — who immediately identifies Rusty as the prime suspect in the Carolyn Polhemus murder. (It’s no real spoiler to note that Rusty had been involved in an intense affair with Carolyn and that Rusty had reacted badly when Carolyn broke it off, to the point where his calls and texts and visits to Carolyn bordered on stalking. We’ll refrain from revealing the numerous other possible suspects, and the red herrings, that surface from episode to episode.) Soon, Rusty is on trial, with the case drawing massive media attention. Let the courtroom theatrics begin.
This version of “Presumed Innocent” has the same essential premise as the source material and the film, but two key characters from the novel and the adaptation have been eliminated, and that’s to the great detriment of the story. We also get far too many soapy, melodramatic scenes, whether it’s Rusty and Barbara hashing out their problems (it’s something of a miracle she has stayed with him), Rusty and/or Barbara in sessions with a therapist (Lily Rabe), or Barbara considering an affair of her own at the worst possible time. It’s also nothing more than an arbitrary bit of padding when a major character suffers a serious health scare and then recovers, leaving us wonder: What was the point of that?
Gyllenhaal is fine as Sabich, though he doesn’t have the weight-of-the-world gravitas of Ford. Ruth Negga is outstanding in a role that sometimes stretches credulity, and O-T Fagbenle delivers one of the more intriguing performances of the year as Della Guardia, delivering his lines in a unique cadence that makes everything sound like something we should be writing down. In the final verdict, however, the updated “Presumed Innocent” somehow manages to be far longer and yet much thinner than the original.
