SPOILERS.

It's hard to figure out what makes Cher so exotically attractive. Except for her half-hooded eyes there isn't anything special about any of her features. It's just that when you put them all together they add up to a Gestalt that is more than equal to the sum of its parts. Maybe too it has something to do with her figure, which has been on abundant display for thirty years and hasn't changed a millimeter in any of its dimensions.

I can't speak for Dennis Quaid's handsomeness but he's a fine actor, even with, or maybe cause of, that slight lisp. He almost always brings something extra to his roles whether they deserve it or not. (He was an outstanding Jerry Lee Lewis.) The director, Peter Yates, gives him a bare chested scene here but doesn't take advantage of the opportunity to have Quaid flex his muscles or anything. His torso doesn't even have a sun tan. Thank you, Mr. Yates. Your concept of masculinity doesn't include self display. Quaid is a lobbyist who cares about his looks only to the extent that they can help him pull off his con jobs. He attends parties and fund raisers, a sentient storage machine for canapés. He's boyish and charming at the beginning, trying to manipulate everyone, but drops that insouciance aptly as the drama develops.

There's a scene that demonstrates Quaid's range as a performer rather well. He's a suit, of course, and when he enters the abandoned Railway Express Station in Washington where all these unwashed dangerous-looking homeless people live, he actually seems scared. Good for him. He really doesn't have to be. The homeless are pretty harmless, most of them mentally ill, but it's the kind of reaction a person might have who wears gold-plated cufflinks and is unfamiliar with the milieu and its inhabitants.

The plot is easy to follow but hard to believe. There's an awful lot of conventional action in it. Quaid dashes in unexpectedly to save Cher's hide twice. Not that Cher's hide isn't worth saving but we've seen this a hundred times. We've also seen a woman trapped in an empty building followed by a slasher, running up and down stairs, stabbing frantically at an elevator button so the doors will close before the razor is wielded. Ho hum.

And suspicion is thrown on a homeless psychotic named Michael. There is a long search for this Michael. He's finally found with his throat cut and the thread is dropped from the story without explanation. Who killed Michael? And why? Nobody cares. And I don't know why it was necessary to make it clear that the stern, corrupt, and finally murderous judge was a Republican. So what?

Someone should give Peter Yates a crack at a truly gutsy narrative again, like "Bullet." Not that the director is a slouch. He has a wordless and very tense scene in a law library that Hitchcock himself would have preened over.

But -- that aside -- I kept wondering what a lawyer might make out of all this. Cher, the defense attorney for a Liam Neeson who has very little to do and literally nothing to say, suffering from hearing loss and elective mutism. When asked on the stand whether he murdered a woman, he hiccups and gulps, "N-no." It could have been worse. He might have thrown away his crutches and screamed, "Look, Mein Fuhrer -- I can VALK!"

Paul Mahoney as the judge is very good too. He was superb as the tragic/comic William Faulkner in the Coen brothers' "Barton Fink." But again it's hard to imagine a trial like this actually taking place. Cher not only is in contact with a juror. She's really in CONTACT with him. The judge and the deputy attorney general are both corrupt. A murder takes place for reasons, and under circumstances, that are a bit hard to understand. Is this really what the justice system looks like in operation? God help us.

A no-frills role for Cher playing an over-worked public defender whose latest client (forced upon her by the court) is a homeless, deaf-mute male accused of murder. Despite the lack of sass, this is a good Cher performance: focused, unselfish on the screen and quite natural, she's charming without effort. Dennis Quaid is a decent match for her as a Capitol Hill lobbyist and juror who wants to help piece together the mystery surrounding a murdered female clerical assistant who had information regarding dirty doings in Washington, D.C. A fairly sophisticated yarn, though one cut straight from a formula. Director Peter Yates does well at keeping the pace lively, however some of the early moments with Quaid are confusing (his role is half-written) and the script is weighty with contrivances and red herrings. A handful of the supporting performances are interesting, but why are the lesser roles--particularly that of a parking lot attendant and the victim herself--so amateurish? **1/2 from ****

Anyone who thinks that the United States legal justice system is fair and balanced has been watching too many movies. The poor and the marginalized get convicted and the rich and elite drive away from the courthouse. It's largely a matter of the size of the pocketbook. And it's still amazing how many innocent people are locked away with almost no hope of getting out. "Suspect" is how about a how a homeless man (Liam Neesom) and his public defender (Cher) find themselves in a case that has much larger ramifications than a simple matter of did a homeless person murder the victim for $9.

The aspect that makes this movie a gem is the fine acting: Cher as the overworked and underpaid public defender, Liam Neeson as the deaf/mute defendant in one of his first major roles, Dennis Quaid as a sexy lobbyist (often messing around with congresswomen to get votes for his industry) turned juror turned amateur sleuth, and John Mahoney as the stoic judge at the trial. A lot of it is pure fantasy but the moments in the courtroom are actually very much like a real courtroom in its obsessiveness with procedure and protocol.

The story begins with the suicide of a prominent Supreme Court Justice and the subsequent murder of his assistant who has been slashed to death. When police investigate the surrounding area, they find a homeless man sporting a knife and in possession of the victim's wallet which contained a king's ransom: $9. Cher is appointed to take the case, and Quaid ends up becoming one of the jurors. Because of the suicide at the beginning of the film, Judge Helms (Mahoney) becomes one of the people on the US President's short list to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. Helms requests to preside over the murder case to free up his later schedule in order that he be considered for the vacancy.

Several scenes take us into the bowels of the homeless of Washington DC. We see a lot of lawyers, a lot of law libraries and a lot of knives. Every homeless person appears to wield a knife. Cher with the unlawful help of Quaid (lawyers and jurors in the same trial are not supposed to commiserate, let alone team up) stumbles upon some evidence that makes the case much more complex. A thoroughly enjoyable courtroom drama with enough action to keep you on the edge of your seat, and an interesting commentary on the justice system and how it handles the poor and the homeless. Unfortunately, public defenders are probably not as successful as Cher appears to be.