The Fresh Films Review: Guilty as Sin (1993)

Guilty as Sin (1993)

Directed by:
Sidney Lumet

COUNTRY
USA

GENRE
Thriller/Crime

NORWEGIAN TITLE
-

RUNNING TIME
107 minutes

Produced by:
Martin Ransohoff

Written by:
Larry Cohen

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Jennifer Haines	Rebecca DeMornay
David Greenhill	Don Johnson
Moe	Jack Warden
Phil	Stephen Lang	½
Detective Martinez	Luis Guzman
Judge	Dana Ivey
DiAngelo	Ron White
Kathleen Bigelow	Barbara Eve Harris
Ed Lombardo	John Kapelos

Review

Veteran Sidney Lumet's direction in the un-erotic thriller Guilty as Sin is a bad combination of sloppy and outdated. He seems to have had little belief that his film could work on any other level than as a melodramatic guilty pleasure at best, and that's also exactly what the film has to offer – for as long as it's able to keep the pace up. Unfortunately, Guilty as Sin doesn't have either the nerve nor the eroticism of its more successful sister Basic Instinct – maybe because Don Johnson's David Greenhill isn't the sexy counterpart to Sharon Stone's Catherine Tramell, but rather a spoiled, sulking diva. Well, at least he's having fun with his part, which is more than can be said for the totally uncomfortable Rebecca de Mornay, who seems horny when she's supposed to be scared, and forced when she's supposed to be tough. You may be able to enjoy this film for a while if you want to – it has that curious, cheap 1990s appeal – but in the end, there's not much here that makes a lasting impression one way or the other.