Defenseless

This is not a bad little thriller complete with spooky garages and a scary fall down the elevator shaft scene although it's sometimes hard to figure out just who is who. The plot has many murky twists and turns (although I imagine the continuity suffered in being cut for television.) Nor do I understand why our lawyer/lover drives a beat up Karmann-Ghia. But this is obviously one of those films that took handouts from big tobacco. Everybody smokes everywhere. The good guys smoke. The bad guys smoke. The good guys who turn out to be bad guys smoke. The bad guys who turn out to be good guys smoke. The cops smoke. I'm surprised the judge and the jury didn't light up. The whole damn film is one big choking cloud of smelly blue smoke. Because of that I knocked my rating down two points.

The lawyer Thelma "T. K." Knudsen Katwuller (Barbara Hershey) is having a love affair with her client Steven Seldes (J. T. Walsh) that is accused of making under-age porn movies through the Blue Screen Production. When T. K. meets her old college friend Ellie Seldes (Mary Beth Hurt), she finds that she is Steven's wife and Ellie invites T. K. to have dinner with her family at her home. T. K. Decides to break-up with Steven and he asks her to meet him in his office. While waiting for Steven, T. K. finds that he owns the Blue Screen Production and had lied to her. When Steven arrives in the office, T. K. fights with him and stabs him in self- protection. On the next morning, Ellie is arrested is accused of murdering her husband and Ellie hires T. K. to defend her. T. K. Believes that the killer is the violent father of a teenager the made a porn movie produced by Steven, but Detective Beutel (Sam Shepard) feels that something is missing in the case.

"Defenseless" is one of my favorite thrillers from the early 90's. I have just watched it today on DVD, maybe for the third or fourth time, and I still like this underrated film. The plot has many twists, and Barbara Hershey and Sam Shepard are in the top of their careers. The 27 year-old Kellie Overbey is convincing in the role of an abused teenager. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Sem Defesa" ("Defenseless")

Note: On 08 September 2024, I saw this film again.

Police try to solve the murder of a businessman. Unknown to them, the man's attorney is implicated and, of course, she wants to keep her involvement secret. This leads to the wrong person being charged, causing the lawyer to go looking for the real culprit. Good mystery with lots of action and tense drama.

Defenseless (1991) was directed by Martin Campbell and it was okay at best.

Positives for Defenseless (1991): The performances from the cast with Barbara Hershey, Sam Shepard, J. T. Walsh, Mary Beth Hurt, Sheree North and George P. Wilbur are great. The movie is directed very well by Campbell. The movie's slow-pace works for the story being told. That's all I got to say for the movie's positives.

Negatives for Defenseless (1991): The movie's story wasn't really that interesting and the execution was very mid. While the pacing is good for the sores being told, it was a little too slow for me. I also felt that the ending was a little anti-climactic.

Overall, Defenseless (1991) is another okay enough directorial effort by Martin Campbell.

Not a bad little thriller. Sure, there are some plot holes. But the production values are decent, nothing to complain about with the direction or photography. The cast did a pretty decent job with mediocre material. I rented the DVD and found that some scenes had been cut. One of the previous commentators mentioned a scene that was not in my version. Plus, there were two brief topless scenes by Kelley Overbey that were not in this version. I like gratuitous nudity as much as the next guy, but these cuts hurt the film. One wasn't totally necessary, but definitely falls into the category of character development. The other scene was major plot exposition, and the film suffered badly for its loss. IMDb doesn't have an age for Miss Overbey, and I wonder if she may not have been eighteen at the time. That's the only reason I can think of for cutting this film into incoherence for the DVD release. Too bad.