Matthew Stechel Lawyer with a client she's defending whom she's having an affair with ends up at the scene of his bloody murder. (The two of them fought right before his death, and she hits him over the head, but storms off with him still alive--only to come back to find him murdered.)There's a complication in that the bloody weapon is in the front seat of her car (under the seat of course) because she was using it to defend herself after he attacked her, but she knows she didn't kill him cause he was very much still alive when she ran out of the building...so who did???Soon things get complicated because she ends up taking the case of the woman who ends up accused of the guy's murder---the guy's wife!!!! (Dun dun dun)There's also the detective played by Sam Shepard who's hunting around trying to put the pieces together. Would it make more sense for lawyer Barbra Hershey to just tell him that she had a fight with him and attacked him right before his death? Undoubtedly. Will she? Of course not, because then there'd be no suspense regarding if he's gonna figure out that she was there with the victim around the time of his death. Movie is engaging enough, decently hooking you into the story as it moves along, but the resolution isn't very good at all. It probably doesn't matter that the resolution isn't good because what really matters is if the movie keeps you watching and if you feel sympathetic towards the lead character despite some of the choices she makes out of fear. On that end the movie works largely because Barbra Hershey does make the character feel like someone you can understand the actions of, and the way the story moves and unfolds makes a certain kind of logical sense while you're watching it. I wasn't again crazy about the direction the story took, especially in the last ten to twenty minutes. I feel like characters who were previously sane abruptly go insane only to heighten the suspense and to give the movie a big dramatic push for the finish...and it just didn't work for me. Did not feel that that fit with what we had seen of that character throughout prior to the end. I was very much enjoying how nice and quietly suspenseful the movie was proceeding before that big dramatic outburst and feel like the movie really didn't need to "go big" for its ending.Close call but its a near miss for me.

Claudio Carvalho 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")

gridoon Technically well-made but ordinary, unremarkable little mystery thriller. The script tries for ambiguity and succeeds most of the way, but ultimately goes for the predictable resolution. Martin Campbell's direction shows care and knowledge of the genre, but lacks style and seems mostly by-the-numbers. Barbara Hershey, although somewhat aging, still shines, and Walsh, Hurt and the actor who plays the brutal, deranged father offer excellent supporting work. But Sam Shepard just looks bored and disinterested. (**)

helpless_dancer 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.