MovieChat Forums > Under Suspicion (2000) Discussion > Ending explained , perhaps

Ending explained , perhaps

posted 3 years ago by MrJoe (1)
2 replies | jump to latest

I don’t think that Gene Hackman broke down from the interrogation and confessed. I think that knowing that he didn’t do it but knowing that in his darkroom there were pictures he had developed of both victims then he mistakenly led himself to believe that his wife found the pictures and he believed that because she was so jealous she murdered the children . A mention was made early in the movie by Hackman that she was a green monster of jealousy. He confesses because realizing this and out of the true love for his wife he would protect her by confessing to the murders he thought she committed. The looks Hackman gave her through the one way glass confirm this and her looks at him would also lead you to think that she was realizing that he was sacrificing himself for her and how much he really loved her, until she spit at the glass. That’s when he the final twist is revealed that they just caught the real killer.
Further reinforcing this is when she goes to him at the very end, she understands that he was sacrificing himself for her and how deeply he loves her, that she was wrong about the episode with her niece . She realizes that the obvious conclusion he would have come to was that he thought that she killed the children out of jealousy. Shes ready to hug, apologize but he is through with her now that his dark secrets are exposed.

[–] SteveG (1370) 2 years ago

Yes, I agree that he thought he was taking the rap for his wife and thought she was the killer. But in the end he realized that she was curating and providing all the evidence against him and as bad as things had been between them before he realized she really didnt know him at all and he was done with her.

[–] letess (1824) 2 years ago

This is just not true. He never thought Chantal committed the murders. In this film or the French one, which was the first one with Romy Schneider and Lino Ventura with a different ending.

This not a story of love. This is a psychological cat and mouse game with the head detective and his subordinate trying to get an attorney to say he did it because they believe he did based on guilt by association. That’s why it’s called The Inquisitor or The Grilling.

Herst (Hackman) is ashamed and humiliated at his indiscretions. Sees that his much younger wife hates him and has gone against him in collaborating with the police. Realizes she believes he touched his young niece and that he disgusts her, and under the pressure of being grilled in interrogation-like methods feels a kind of release, and breaks down into a confession he feels he deserves. And as a viewer, you don’t really know if he did it or not. That’s why it’s suspenseful. If both you and the op reached this conclusion about Chantal, then this remake really missed its mark, as you would never reach that with the original or even the book it was based on.