Perfect Witness (1989 TV Movie) User Reviews

HBO movie about a witness to a murder

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 11 May 2015]

Brian Dennehy, Stockard Channing, and Aiden Quinn star in the 1989 "Perfect Witness" for HBO.

Dennehy is the DA of New York City, and Channing an Assistant DA with whom he is romantically involved. She has been working on a witness who (David Proval) who will testify against organized crime.

Then a restaurateur (Quinn), while making a phone call in a bar, witnesses a contract hit. The DA's office is all over him to get him to testify. He consents until his family is harassed and then refuses, going before the Grand Jury and flatly refusing to testify.

There is an interesting plot twist at the end.

Pretty good movie with a group of top actors in the lead. Quinn looks so different today - back then he was a skinny guy whom Sinatra's daughter wanted to play her father. He does a fine job. Dennehy is one of the great actors, having seen him on stage in "Long Day's Journey" - he has immense power. Channing, blond here, is excellent as someone who wonders if it's all worth it.

Ken Pogue plays the weakling bartender who saw the murder and claims his back was turned. He's very good.

The leads were American but everybody else, as far as I could tell, was Canadian. Some of the New York scenes were not New York but pretty impressive, better than usual.

HBO I believe does much more impressive work now - this seems like a typical TV movie.

Quinn's character witnesses the murder while he's in a phone booth. Just think - today he would have used a cell phone from the restaurant and been out of the whole thing.

Danger. Plot holes ahead.

[=G= · 6/10 · 6 December 2002]

"Perfect Witness" is a typical journeyman HBO tv flick which tells of a small time restauranteur (Quinn) in NYC who witnesses a gangland hit, identifies the killer from mug shots but refuses to testify, and finds himself being squeezed by a US Attorney (Dennehy) and the mob with equal vigor. Overall the film is a mediocre telling of an interesting story with a hook at the end which is almost worth the wait. All drama with no action, romance, sex, or other trimmings, "Perfect Witness" makes for a flawed but okay watch for the needy channel surfer. (C+)

Good Movie Until Last 30 Minutes...

[SoApStAr07 · 7/10 · 13 August 2005]

Alright, here we go. I was totally into this movie because I like all of these law type of movies. It really interested me, and of course having my all time favorite actress ever, Stockard Channing, in it made it just that much better. She was so totally *amazing* in it, and I would like to recommend this movie to everyone. There is one MaJoR drawback to this movie though. The last like 30 minutes of this movie are so NoT worth watching, because the best character in my honest opinion, (I bet you can not guess who I am talking about here. Lol...) gets shot and dies. The movie goes down hill after that, but until that part it is one *awesome* movie. Stockard Channing rox!

My best protection is keeping my mouth shut!

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 19 September 2009]

(Some Spoilers) Taking a break from running his restaurant on Manhattans's West Side Sam Paxton, Aidan Quinn, stops off at his favorite watering hole Costallo's Ginmill to have a few drinks. Sam minding his own business and not looking for trouble, but only his next drink, sees Kevin "Smiley" O'Rouake, David Cumming, pop in the place with a grin from ear to ear.

Before you can say "Geronimo" Smiley blasts bar patron a Mr. Woods, Markus Flanagan, into the promised land emptying his .9mm automatic into him! Sam doing his civic duty is the only person willing to identify Smiley with everyone else in the bar claiming that they were looking the other way, when Woods got blasted, and totally ignorant of what happened! It was by him doing the right thing that Sam got himself and his family royally screwed for the remainder of the movie.

Smiley being a member of the notorious West Side Rovers extortion gang had his boys put the squeeze on Sam even when he was provided police protection by Manhattan D.A James Falcon, Brian Dennehy. Falcon was determined to put the Rovers out of business and behind bars and it was Sam, by testifying against Smiley, that was going to make his dream come true. So obsessed was Falcon in getting the Rovers their just deserts that he had his assistant and long time lover Liz Sapperstein, Stocker Channing, killed in a blotched sting operation with bar owner Costello, Ken Pogre, forced-by being blackmailed by Falcon-to go undercover for him.

***SPOILERS*** Sam soon realizing that it's better to shut his mouth then open it goes along with the Rover's attempts to keep quite until he finds out that his best friend Costello knew that he his wife Jeanie, Laura Harrington, and son Danny were being targeted by the Rovers who kidnapped and broke Danny's, Nial Lancaster, arm! Throwing caution to the wind Sam is now more then ever willing to testify against Smiley in open court and point him out as Woods' killer. As the shoe is about to drop, right on top of Smiley's head, Sam on the stand finds out, to his both shock and surprise, that he doesn't have to say a word! Smiley ends up doing all the talking for him! And what's even more surprising it was James Falcon who set this all up right from the start! With the now confused and befuddled Sam Paxton not having a clue to what his role, in Falcon's set-up, was going to be!

P.S As the film title indicates Sam Paxton turned out to be D.A Falcon's "Perfect Witness" in getting the goods on the West Side Rovers without him never for once, even when he was told at the end of the movie, realizing it!

Deteriorating Characters = Downer

[ccthemovieman-1 · 3/10 · 3 May 2007]

This kept my interest for over halfway but then story began to get a little too depressing and the language got offensive and the whole thing just sort of collapsed. Near the end, I could care less what happened.

I am used to hearing actor Brian Dennehy's verbal blasphemy. He's one of the worst of all times in that regard, abusing the Lord's name in vain, but it was disappointing to see Aiden Quinn's character, "Sam Paxton," slowly deteriorate. He was likable most of the way, and then started to cop an attitude. What happened to Stockard Channing's character "Liz" also was disappointing.

Overall, too much of a downer to recommend.

absolutely awful

[eljayinv · 2/10 · 28 December 2023]

No clue about grand jury procedure, no clue how cops work, no clue about the department of justice, no clue about courtroom procedure. The writer should get acquainted with the workings of the witness protection program. Given the awful, completely unrealistic script, the actors did the best they could, especially Stockard Channing. The only reason I rated it so high was the excellent views of the mean streets of an urban area, and the excellent camera work. There have been so many excellent movies about witnesses to murder, criminal prosecution, and police work and the justice system. Go see any of them and skip this one.

Was it worth it? is the great question mark here, which is left unanswered - as usual.

[clanciai · 9/10 · 6 January 2023]

Aidan Quinn is always good and his films are always interesting, no matter what kind of role he plays. Here he is a very ordinary man, a common restaurateur down town in New York, who has the bad luck of happening to witness a cold blooded murder next to him. The murderer passes him on his way out and smiles towards him. That smile is the nightmare of the film and of Aidan Quinn's character. He has a wife and a small boy, whom he loves, they are a tender family, but as he is called to testify about the murder as the perfect witness, his family becomes threatened, and he refuses to testify to protect them. The district attorney has to find other ways to bring in the mob that keeps the neighbourhood in iron pincers, he tries any means to get Quinn to testify, but he stubbornly refuses and even goes to jail for contempt. Meanwhile the casualties pile up in the jam of this unresolved case, and the murderer keeps smiling, paying everyone off who keeps their silence, until it goes too far. It's a typical mob story, this is how it works, when something happens everyone turns his back to it and no one has seen anything, and the most horrible scene is the preliminary murder scene. The smiling murderer shoots down his victim with repeated shots while all the customers of the joint just turn their backs seeing nothing. This finally gets up to Quinn's neck, and there is an unexpected final settlement. The expert witness has done his duty by actually doing nothing, the nightmare is over, but the casualties remain behind as silent but the most eloquent and irrefutable witnesses of all.

Well made courtroom drama

[udar55 · 8/10 · 29 August 2023]

Restaurant owner Sam Paxton (Aidan Quinn) witnesses a mob hit in a crowded bar and is the only one to tell police he saw the killer. The news thrills U. S. Attorney James Falcon (Brian Dennehy), who is looking to use the witness to put away the Irish mob in NYC. However, Paxton soon finds himself up against both the threatening mob and locals that cherish a misguided "don't snitch on your community" ethic. This HBO movie reunites Dennehy with F/X (1986) director Robert Mandel and is quite good in showing the inner workings of both the prosecutor's office and the mob. Quinn is excellent in the lead and Dennehy is also great as the ruthless attorney who will stop at nothing to get his case. Both were nominated for Cable ACE awards. There is a great supporting cast including Stockard Channing as another lawyer (she was nominated for an Emmy for this), Laura Harrington as Paxton's suffering wife, Delroy Lindo as a detective, Ken Pogue as the bar owner, and Colm Meaney and Tobin Bell as a couple of Irish thugs. And, per Hollywood casting rules, since it is technically a mob picture Tony Sirico has a small role too.