Under Suspicion

Tony Aaron [Liam Neeson] is a keen but weary police investigator based in Brighton, on the pristine South Coast of Great Britain, towards the end of the 1950s. He teams up with his colleague and friend, Frank Vance [Kenneth Cranham], to shadow Powers [Alan Talbot], a local criminal. Tony ultimately leaves Frank outside Powers’ house to continue observing, while he succumbs to a dangerous, secret liaison with Powers’ wife, Hazel [Maggie O’Neill]. When Powers returns unexpectedly and uncovers the affair, he grabs his shotgun to punish the trespassers, but Frank intervenes and a violent struggle ensues, culminating in Powers injuring and unintentionally killing another police officer, Colin [Martin Grace], during the chaos.

Two years later, during the 1959 Christmas season, Tony has stepped away from the force and is struggling as an unsuccessful private detective. His crooked specialty is fabricating adultery evidence to help clients obtain divorces—an ugly but lucrative game in England and Wales at the time. He preys on vulnerability, coaching clients through elaborate ruses that require hotel stays and staged affairs. One day, a routine pickup at the station introduces him to a new client who becomes central to the next wave of trouble. Tony’s hotel-room photography session ends in horror when he discovers that both spouses have been shot dead. The murdered couple belonged to the painter Stasio [Michael Almaz], who sought a divorce so he could marry another woman named Angeline [Laura San Giacomo]. In a macabre twist, Stasio’s thumb is severed after the murder.

The investigation spirals as Tony and Frank pursue different leads. They visit Angeline and Selina [Alphonsia Emmanuel], the latter being Stasio’s estranged partner, while Stasio’s will reveals the painter has left everything to Angeline and nothing to Selina. A charged new alliance forms: Tony and Angeline become lovers, and he digs through Stasio’s studio in search of authentic clues. He learns that Stasio had imprinted his thumb onto his paintings to establish provenance and authenticity, a crucial thread that could exonerate him—or implicate others.

As the case darkens, suspicion quickly lands on Tony when the murder weapon turns up in the hotel furnace and the evidence points toward him. Frank pushes Roscoe [Stephen Moore], a key witness who is entangled with rent boys, to reveal Tony’s innocence, but Roscoe falls apart and leaves behind a suicide note that paints Tony as guilty. Tony is arrested and tried for the murders, where the prosecution contends that he married for money and intended to leave his wife. Angeline becomes a surprise witness for the prosecution, testifying that she saw a man climbing over the hotel roof and performing a peculiar lighter-banging gesture that aligned with Tony’s own method—an indelible clue used to convict him.

With the verdict sealed, Tony accepts a death sentence for the killings, but the plot takes a dramatic turn on the eve of his execution. Frank returns to Stasio’s house and discovers Stasio’s thumb nestled inside Angeline’s paint box, prompting him to speed back to the prison just in time to intervene and stop the hanging. Angeline herself is arrested later, accused of involvement in the painter’s murder as well. Tony, meanwhile, plans to flee the country, visiting Angeline in prison, where she unveils a chilling theory: Tony and Selina had conspired to frame her. A whispered confrontation follows in which Tony hints to Angeline whether he was responsible for the other deaths, including Hazel’s.

The finale transports Tony to Miami, where he encounters Selina [Alphonsia Emmanuel] again. She reveals that she has begun releasing Stasio’s paintings to the public and hands him a payment as she scolds him for falling in love with Angeline, suggesting that Timelines and loyalties have shifted. The film closes on a bleak note: a despondent Tony, still haunted by the weight of the crimes and the role he played, uses his lighter in a way that echoes Angeline’s testimony, lingering on the same gesture that sealed his fate in court.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 15:01