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I didnt understand the movie.
Why did he confess something he didnt do ?
Did he toght it was his wife who did it ?

Genes character confeses to the crime because he thinks that his wife is the one doing the killing. He thinks that his wife out of jealosy is killing the girls because they are taking the place she once had. So she finds the pics in his dark room and decides to go and kill those little girls. She is a jealous woman and you see that at the christmas party, for that she decides to sleep in separate rooms, wow shes crazy. so gene loves her so much that he is willing to take the rap for her and go to jail. Of course she thinks he did the killing , thats why in the end of the movie she goes to embrace him as a way of asking for forginess for not supporting him throughout the evening and the past year that they've been living apart in the same house.She also realises how much he loves her . He is going with low class hookers because he doesn't want anybody better than his wife. He turns away because hes had enough and cant be with his wife anymore especially after the way she's treated him and not supporting him through the nights ordeal. I've seen this movie about 6 months ago and I dont remember every detail but that has to be the plot , allthough i will say that the film leaves to much for the viewer to decide.

This is the message: "Under Suspicious" is a bad movie, with a bad ending (simply stupid and confused), but with two great actors. 5/10 (and i am generous)

Well, I didn't read all of the comments so far here so someone might have already said this, but to answer your question, cristilogo, it is my opinion that the film is saying that no matter how guilty a person looks, they could just possibly be innocent. In the case of the film, the character of Henry Buchanan Hurst as played by Gene Hackman appears to be the guilty one. It looks completely like he killed the girls. He has documented habits of visiting barely legal websites. He admits to having spent time having sex with very young hookers. And, he happened to be in the areas where the murders were committed at or around the times they were committed. So, with all that, he looks precisely like the killer that Morgan Freeman was looking for. So, when, at the end, Hackman starts confessing to the crimes, I felt that he knew no matter what he did, he would never convince Freeman or Thomas Jane of his innocence. Plus, the pictures! He had pictures of the victims in his home. So, with everything he had done that the police had found out about (pictures, websites, admitting to being with young hookers, his whereabouts), an eventual prosecutor in the trial of Henry Hurst would have gotten a conviction with his eyes closed. It just happened that in the end they arrested the real killer in the act and he confessed so Henry was released. As for the actual ending to the film, I'm kind of ambivalent about it. I used to like it, but I'm not sure now.

"You do not know who you are *beep* with!!"
-Blade 2

From what I can tell (from the commentary of the film and from the film itself) Henry was innocent all along. Remember, the novel that both the first version of the film and this one are based upon is called "Brain Wash". Also, here is the following commentary about the confession (note, I've tried to transcribe it from what they are saying from the audio track. However, I have left out some bits because I was unable type it out quickly and the sentences were too long, but it is close to it directly):

(During the confession, when Freeman and Bellucci's characters realize what they've done to Henry)
Freeman: The intertesting thing about false confessions, when they get enough information from the interigator to recount what happenned, this is one of those situations.
Hopkins: You've him all the juice.
Freeman: All of it.
Hopkins: You've made him feel about the murder the way you do. We shot a sort of scene over this, didn't we? Where you walk out and see the back of the bad guy and you ask him why he did it and all that other stuff. But we dropped that pretty big scene because it seemed to break the mood for the end of the film.

(During the outside shot of where Monica is walking in the crowd, up to the ending of the film)
Freeman: There is one that leaves me personally and a lot of people I know kind of confused. And that's one thats coming up. She's out. She goes out. So now she's outside. She must be walking around. Lost in this sort of emotional haze. And then she climbs up to something that looks like a parapit, and we think "oh my god, she's gonna jump!" So, it's a red harring.
Hopkins: It's a red harring. I think she's considering it. I don't know if she thinks she has much to live for. In the original film, she blows her brains out. And as much as the french fancies wanted us to do it, I know Gene really wanted that to happen too. (comment about the original film and about how bad an idea it was to have Monica play Chantal as an unbalanced woman.)
Freeman: However, after experiencing the red harring, we have a sense of closure when she shows up and he can reject her. He's desperately looking for her.
Hopkins: And it's obvious that they have been in love. And against all the signs, these two people were in love or are in love or whatever that means. And hopefully for anyone who doesn't understand why he confessed, this was the reason.
Freeman: A lot of people don't understand why, what he was doing.
(comments about how lucky the person who buy the DVD getting a chance to understand the ending)
Hopkins: (couldn't catch the first part of this bit) And he does it because the woman he loves believes he's such a monster and has nothing to live for.

Hope that's helpful.

Well, i've read all the comments here and for some reason some of them are insisting that Chantal did the crimes and Hearst was covering for them. One of the comments asked how could she rape them? its quite a contradiction as i see it. Remember that Freeman said that the killer had to know his/her victims cause there was no violence took place, we know that Hearst could've had the chance to meet those little girls and not to be a stranger to them. But for Chantal, how could she develop such a relationship? i think this is another hole in Chantal being the murderer theory.
I didn't read the story in which the movie was based on, but i don't think the aim of the movie is who committed those crimes, it's all about the relationships and how to maintain them, how to keep a young jealous wife and how to make him love again. Heast was a normal guy with a fortune, success, fame and a sexy as hell wife. He had everything except for the love of his wife; he even showed that Freeman is an example of those people who would like to see him going down as a reason of being jealous by referring to his x-wife who had left him for a richer man.
So, Hearst confessed to those crimes when he saw all his deepest darkest secrets are spread widely, remember during the interrogation he tried not to let her hear what was going in the interrogation between him and Freeman, not because he was afraid to let her know those secrets, because he didn't want to hurt her in any way, he is still in love with her and that's shown when with the shot which pictures him knocking the door at night at Chantal's bedroom which indicates that he didn't like the life he was living by paying visits to steer hookers and he still wants her. At the point when he starts to confess is when he looks at the double glass window while Freeman is repeating the question, at that point he was sure that she believes that he is the murderer and committed those crimes, it was the last thing he expected, at that moment when Freeman kept repeating his question he wasn't paying attention cause he was thinking, what i got left, all the pieces added together points to me, my wife believes i'm the killer. He is frustrated and he tried to take vengeance at her by confessing to those crimes in front of her while she was listening as a way to punish her for not supporting him and thinking of him in that way. Remember when they asked him about the crime details, he didn't give any new details!! he just kept stating the details which he heard while he was being under interrogation. NOTHING NEW not a single new detail that tells you that he didn't actually commit those crimes, he did it as revenge.
Hearst only crime was that he liked young girls and any aged man likes them too. The final scene explains itself by marching through that crowded street to illustrate the emotions and how Chantal broke the last string that kept them together.
I will be happy to hear any corrections in this theory.

My thoughts:

Henry confessed for probably two reasons, the interrogation techniques had broken him down, he didn't care about anything at that point, and because he was crushed that his wife actually thought he was guilty. For example, when the photos were brought in, he was so broken down that he did not defend himself and state (as before) that he was documenting Island life.

The movie took place from the time Henry was initially suspected by the police, to his breakdown and confession, which I think took place over one afternoon and into the evening. Less than a day. Most of the story line was introduced over that time period by the use of flashbacks, recollections, and so on. I think the effect was that time seemed less compressed than it actually was.

I think he loved his wife and was very hurt by her rejection, although the movie did not look much at the history of how/why that happened. I think he was willing to live with it, hoping that someday she would perhaps start loving him again.

I think the wife was insecure, possibly jealous, and misconstrued events, unwilling to give Henry any chance to explain any situation she did not understand, such as the niece at Christmas. The camera very carefully told two different versions of that event, first through her eyes, which saw evil happening, second through his eyes, which showed an innocent sharing of the niece's feelings about her gifts with him. During his recall, notice how the niece shrugs her shoulders and laughs off what she sees, which is her Aunt's disgust/misperception (in just a glance) of their conversation.

Henry at least visited prostitutes, so he could feel some sexuality. She apparently just locked herself in her room suppressing her feelings. Her refusal to even try to communicate with Henry was problematic; it's hard being completely shut out. I think she was portrayed as having grown into a woman that could not handle her sexuality.

He pushed her away in the final scene because after the very open police accusations, he acknowledged (to himself) that his wife's under-the-table snubbing was just as hurtful as the police had been and he was disgusted with it all.

Note, I did not read the book, so I don't know what it said, or how closely the movie followed it.