Film Review: Guilty as Sin (1993)

Some of the best films by Sidney Lumet, like 12 Angry Men and The Verdict were set in courtrooms. That setting, however, couldn’t guarantee success, especially in the latter stages of Lumet’s career. One of the more disappointing examples can be found in his 1993 thriller Guilty as Sin.

Protagonist, played by Rebecca De Mornay, is Jennifer Haines, ambitious and very capable trial attorney working in Chicago law firm. Her latest case, during which she successfully defended a mobster, brought attention of a well-dressed and attractive man who spent much of time in courtroom watching her work. He later comes to her and introduces himself as David Greenhill (played by Don Johnson), man who is charged for murder of his wealthy wife who had apparently jumped from apartment in the high rise building. Greenhill freely admits that he is a compulsive womaniser who made his living by seducing wealthy women for their money, but he vehemently denies that he had anything to do with his wife’s death. Haines is intrigued and agrees to represents him at the upcoming trial. That proves to be a mistake because Greenhill reveals himself to be manipulative psychopath who interferes in her private life. To make things worse, Haines realises that he not only actually killed his wife, but that the crime was well-planned with her being chosen as defence attorney in advance. Haines fails to get rid of him and is forced to represent him, and during the trial learns that Haines might have killed women before and that she might do it again, with her as next potential victim. She gets torn between her professional duty and desire to get rid of him by planting evidence, which Greenhill anticipates and makes the trial a vicious cat and mouse game.

Script for Guilty as Sin was written by Larry Cohen, film maker best known for low budget exploitation films. Despite having premise very much like Jagged Edge, a thriller made eight years earlier, plot look surprisingly bland and uninspiring. This is partially due because Cohen’s unwillingness to take the trash route scriptwriter Joe Eszterhas had taken in previous film. Antagonist’s true character is revealed relatively early, taking out much of the suspense and the plot resolves in cliched and annoyingly familiar ways. Lumet’s direction also shows utter lack of inspiration, tempo is very slow and unnecessary subplot involving Haines’ boyfriend (played by Stephen Lang) only makes this film painfully overlong. Even the music score by Howard Shore is substandard and makes Guilty as Sin sound like cheap television film. The only one who seems to put some effort is Don Johnson, Miami Vice star who marvels at opportunity to play demonic villain for a change, although even his performance is affected by poor script and dialogue. Rebecca De Mornay looks great, but her character is also poorly written. Lumet tries to improve his film only at the very end, which feature rather bloody final showdown, but it comes too late to improve general impression of this disappointing courtroom thriller.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

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