Physical Evidence (1989)
Reviews/Film; Burt Reynolds Up a Creek With Many Red Herrings
LEAD: The fact that the weary, red-herring-strewn thriller ''Physical Evidence'' has been advertised as being ''from the producer of 'Jagged Edge' '' may give some idea of what the film's other selling points are worth. Actually, the presence of Burt Reynolds ought to help, since Mr. Reynolds looks great here and manages to seem smarter and more substantial than anyone else in the cast.
The fact that the weary, red-herring-strewn thriller ''Physical Evidence'' has been advertised as being ''from the producer of 'Jagged Edge' '' may give some idea of what the film's other selling points are worth. Actually, the presence of Burt Reynolds ought to help, since Mr. Reynolds looks great here and manages to seem smarter and more substantial than anyone else in the cast. But Mr. Reynolds has a less than show-stopping role. He plays a hard-living policeman who, while temporarily suspended from the force, finds himself accused of murder. He also finds himself constantly upstaged by his lawyer.
Lawyers have changed, at least as far as movies and television are concerned. Once they were the characters who asked the right questions and crusaded nobly in behalf of the truth; these days, they're consummate yuppies and the sharpest dressers around. So into ''Physical Evidence'' marches Jenny Hudson (Theresa Russell), a public defender whose trim wardrobe, spare but conspicuous jewelry and elegantly streamlined hairdo mark her as the epitome of ''L.A. Law''-style chic. Jenny says things like ''You realize your history of violent assault does not make your case any easier, but I can help you,'' but she does not say them in any tone of voice the American Bar Association would understand.
Jenny is assigned the case of Joe Paris (Mr. Reynolds), and she proceeds to make an awful lot of house calls. The film, in fact, is divided between those scenes that find Jenny in casual, homey settings, where she wears her hair long, and those that take place in the courtroom, where she manages a different kind of chignon for each new outfit. In the at-home scenes, Jenny is seen with an obnoxious financial-world boyfriend who provides the film with some much-needed humor. He hangs up his clothes lovingly before jumping into the hot tub, speaks of ''quality time'' and tells Jenny she ought to get a cellular phone so they can communicate better.
This may be a cheap shot, but at least it is a shot, and otherwise ''Physical Evidence,'' which opens today at the National and other theaters, has precious few of them. As directed by Michael Crichton, the film wanders dispiritedly from one suspect to another, suggesting that Mr. Reynolds's Joe has been framed but never generating much interest in who the real culprit may be. The film is full of bad alibis, likely suspects, incriminating tape recordings and predictably exotic settings, like an orchid-filled greenhouse in somebody's suburban home. You don't have to be an old hand at this to realize the greenhouse won't be complete until either (a) all its glass has been shattered or (b) a couple of corpses have been strewn among the flowers.
A couple of actors do well in smaller roles, most notably Angelo Rizacos as an ailing hit-man and Ted McGinley as Jenny's suspender-wearing beau. And Mr. Reynolds gives one of his better performances in a role that's almost certain to be overlooked. Mr. Reynolds has appeared in a long string of stinkers in recent years, but this time, the trouble isn't his fault. House Calls By a Lawyer PHYSICAL EVIDENCE, directed by Michael Crichton; screenplay by Bill Phillips; director of photography, John A. Alonzo; edited by Glenn Farr; music by Henry Mancini; production designer, Dan Yarhi; produced by Martin Ransohoff; released by Columbia Pictures. At the National Twin, Broadway at 44th Street; Manhattan Twin, Third Avenue at 59th Street; Olympia, Broadway at 107th Street; running time: 99 minutes. This film is rated R. Joe Paris .......... Burt Reynolds Jenny Hudson .......... Theresa Russell James Nicks .......... Ned Beatty Deborah Quinn .......... Kay Lenz Kyle .......... Ted McGinley Matt Farley .......... Tom O'Brien