Above Suspicion

Above Suspicion

Susan Smith’s is a tragic story. In her teen years, she got together with a local drug dealer named Kenneth Smith in the ‘70s and found herself deep into drugs of all kinds, particularly prescription drugs that were growing in popularity at the time. A hotshot young FBI agent out of Kentucky named Mark Putnam arrived in town to try and catch a local bank robber in 1987 and crossed paths with Smith, turning her into an informant that allowed him to solve multiple cases in the area.

She was happy to help him for extra money and self-worth, and they began a sexual relationship after he no longer needed her as an informant. When Putnam tried to break things off after she no longer served his needs, Smith threatened to expose him so he killed his girlfriend who worked for him as an informant. He was arrested in 1990, marking the first time ever that an FBI agent had been convicted of murder.

“Above Suspicion” contains more than enough narrative meat for it. it’s just too bad director Phillip Noyce can’t figure out how to make this true-crime story any more interesting than reading through Susan Smith’s Wikipedia page.

Emilia Clarke (“Game of Thrones”) plays Smith here while another HBO drama alum Jack Huston (“Boardwalk Empire”) takes on Putnam. Neither one seems entirely comfortable but Clarke holds it together best but is woefully miscast by Noyce as far as hitting the necessary darker beats of this story such as addiction or spousal abuse (much less toward end violence). The whole thing feels like hillbilly dress-up; frankly I never believed these people were real much like that divisive Ron Howard film from last year.

This isn’t quite hillbilly caricature territory but “Above Suspicion” comes close enough with characters one would think could be played better by actors like Emilia Clarke if only given stronger material or more thoughtful filmmaking choices. Smith’s is a story about violence and lost dreams, where she traded one garbage man for another who seemed to live on opposite sides of society but turned out just as rotten. “Above Suspicion” is not brutal enough or dark enough or high-stakes enough. It does not do justice to what happened to Susan Smith.

As for Putnam, Huston also feels under-directed here more like a guy going through the motions than any kind of monster or even attention-grabber who desperately wanted everything: the family, the girlfriend, the high profile arrests all on his own terms. It’s a non-performance from an interesting actor who seems bored by parts of it at times.

The rest of cast feels under directed too outside Clarke with familiar faces Sophie Lowe, Johnny Knoxville & Chris Mulkey barely making themselves known other than their names appearing in credits (which sometimes happens when you least expect it). As if trying to make up for flat storytelling, it’s often over-edited and over shot, so we get extremely sweaty close-ups that are supposed to raise tension but really only call attention to themselves

Most importantly, “Above Suspicion” doesn’t pass as a true story film because reading about the case is more entertaining than watching the movie. It was filmed years ago and postponed many times. Clarke and Huston can probably disown it like it never existed (they might have already done so). It’s just unfortunate that Susan Smith’s narrative will be considered an unimportant aspect of their professional lives.

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