"Above Suspicion" has a very clever plot, above average acting, and maintains interest throughout. This plays like a good episode of "Columbo". Joe Mantegna gives a Columbo-like performance as the relentless detective who thinks the obvious in a murderer investigation is not how it happened. Unfortunately, in this case, his adversary, Christopher Reeve always seems to be one step ahead of Mantegna. I can't say I was totally satisfied with the ending, but under the circumstances, I can see where it came from. The film has plenty of nudity, violence, and edge of your seat twists and turns. Recommended. - MERK

Dempsey "Demp" Cain (belated now, Christopher Reeve) was one of those law officers that did everything by the book. He was a very good police officer. Maybe, he was too good! His brother, Nick Cain (Edward Kerr) was a police officer as well. During an event on the job, catching the thugs who killed a fellow officer, Demp gets shot. Basically, he took the bullet for his brother. Nick had read his deposition and approached the subject with Demp while he was hospitalized. Demp told Nick that he was his brother, and he knew that he would have done the same for him. But in actuality, an event during this shakedown tipped Demp off to how corrupt his family really was. Two of the most important people in his life, his own family, were having an affair behind his back. Nick and his wife, Gail Cain (Kim Cattrall), had been having an affair for some time now. But using his paralysis, along with a little sympathy, and time to think, was just what he needed to come up with the ultimate pay back.There was just one problem in this plot of revenge though; his name was Alan Rhinehart (Joe Mantegna), another fellow cop on the force. Alan was a good cop as well. He just did things differently than Demp. He was not a 'do it by the book' kind of cop, but he had good instincts. He was the "Songbird" during this revenge plot. But fortunately for Demp, No one on the force would listen to him. They kept telling him to leave it alone. But Alan just couldn't! He knew that Demp was guilty in this revenge plot. He launched a series of complaints against Demp, which put demp in a legal jam for a short while. Ultimately though, because of Alan pursuing his accusations, it led to his sudden end with the department. And does Demp get away with his revenge against his brother and wife? That's left to be seen when you watch the movie!"Above Suspicion," is a very good TV movie; it's kind of short, but it gets its point across! It also leaves you missing Christopher Reeve. He was a good actor, but I think that "Super Man" is what really made him though. He had a sad ending, but he had a loving wife and family that stood beside him until the end. It's ironic that he was chosen to play the part of Demp, the paralyzed cop, too.

***SPOILERS*** Being highly successful in everything that he did, from the top of his class in collage a top Jet pilot and law enforcement officer, Dempsey Cain, Christopher Reeve,is the exact opposite of his younger brother Nick, Edward Kerr. Nick also a member of the San Sebastian police department like Dempsey is a total failure when compared to his older brother.One evening at a police shooting, the cop ended up dead, Dempsey calls Nick on his personal beeper and gets no answer. It turned that Nick was at Dempsey's house having an sexual tryst with his cheating and unfaithful wife Gail, Kim Cattrail. The next day the police. led by Det. Cain, track down the cop killers in a hotel room and just when their about to make the pinch Nick's beeper goes off, alerting the fugitives. The resulting shootout ends with Dempsey getting shot in the spine and ending up crippled from the waist down.At the inquest following the shooting Dempsey covered up the fact that his brother's incompetence, leaving his beeper on, was responsible for the shootout. Taking the blame himself for it saying that the noisy beeper was his not Nick's Dempsey forgave his brother for his career ending injuries but not for his sleeping with his wife. Dempsey then concocted a devious and sinister plan to make them both pay for what they did to him with their lives.Checking Nick's phone bill Dempsey found out that he called his answering service from his, Dempsey's, home at 2:30 AM. Dempsey realized that Nick was having an affair with his wife at the time that the young cop was shot and killed and that illicit affair had been going on for some time.Putting on an act that he was despondent with his life as a paraplegic Dempsey get's both Nick and Gail to go along with a plan where he's killed, by them, in a burglary and having insured himself for $1,000,000.00 with a double indemnity clause, excluding suicide. The two would both get double the amount and that would also take care of his and Gail's son Damnon, Blake Foster,college and financial future. Getting everything ready for the big night, Friday July 15, 1994,when Dempsey is supposed to be killed Nick & Gail get the surprise of their life. They realize, only too late, that's it's them not Dempsey who's to end up on a cold slab at the local morgue with the insurance policy as the air-tight evidence that they had a financial motive to kill him. The second half of the movie "Above Suspicion" has to do with Dempsey's fellow police detective Alan Rhinehart, Joe Mantegna,who realized that Dempsey was guilty,trying to convince his superior Capt Lindsey, Ron Canada, and the internal affairs department to have him arrested and tried for his bother and wife's deaths.The movie ends on a very disturbing note with Det. Rhinehart finally getting Dempsey to stand trial for his brothers and wife's murder but the results shocked even him in how brilliant and, for the loss of a better word, evil Dempsey's plan was. No matter what Rhienhart could come up with he found out, the hard way, that he was totally helpless to have a jury convict Dempsey.

It`s a poignant fact that only days after this film was released Christopher Reeve suffered a tragic accident and the headlines were about his last role as a paralysed cop which means it`s impossible to watch ABOVE SUSPICION without being reminded of Reeve`s real life situation so I`ll try and review this movie on its own merits While not being the greatest actor in the world the one thing I have noticed about Christopher Reeve on-screen is that he comes across as being Mr nice guy so it`s somewhat surprising to see him starring in a thriller featuring sex , violence and strong language . The plot itself is intriguing enough to hold the attention and revolves around a cop maimed in the line of duty wanting to set himself up for a murder so that his wife will cash in on his life insurance . It`s a fairly clever thriller and even though it`s a HBO production featuring sex , violence and swearing these elements don`t overshadow the plot unlike many other HBO films that drown in excessive violence . That scene in the court at the end made me wince