Presumed Innocent (1990)

Bonnie Bedelia: Barbara Sabich

Photos 

Quotes 

• [upon finding out Rusty will lead the investigation of his ex-lover's murder] 

  Barbara Sabich : There are one hundred and fifty lawyers down there. Couldn't they find someone who didn't fuck her to handle the case?

• Barbara Sabich : You understand what happened had to happen. It couldn't have turned out any other way. A woman's depressed - with herself, with life. With her husband, who had made life possible for her, until he was... bewitched... by another woman. A destroyer.

  [teary] 

  Barbara Sabich : Abandoned. Like someone left for dead. She plans her suicide... until the dream begins. In the dream, the destroyer is destroyed. That's a dream worth living for.

  [dreamy] 

  Barbara Sabich : Now, with such simplicity, such clarity, everything falls into place. It must be a crime that her husband can declare unsolved and be believed by all the world. She must make it look like a rape, but she must leave her husband the clues. Once he discovers who it was, he'll put the case into the file of unsolved murders. Another break-in by some sex-crazed man.

  [smiling] 

  Barbara Sabich : But all his life, he'll know that it was her. She remembers a set of glasses she bought for the woman some time before; a housewarming gift from her husband and his office. She buys another set. Her husband has a beer one night - doesn't even comment on the glass. Now she has his fingerprints. Then on a few mornings... she...

  [grimacing] 

  Barbara Sabich : ... saves the fluid that comes out when she removes her diaphragm. Puts it in a plastic bag. Puts the bag in the basement freezer, and... waits.

  [detached] 

  Barbara Sabich : She calls the woman and asks to see her; stops first at the U and logs into the computer. Now she has her alibi. She goes to the woman. The woman lets her in. When her head is turned, she removes the instrument from her bag and strikes. The destroyer is destroyed. She takes a cord out that she brought along, and ties her body in ways her husband described that perverts do. She feels power; control. A sense that she's guided by a force beyond herself. She takes a syringe and injects the contents of the ziploc bag. Leaves the glass on the bar. Unlocks the door and windows. And goes home. And life begins again.

  [teary] 

  Barbara Sabich : Until a trial, when she sees her husband suffer the way she never intended. She was prepared to tell the truth, right up to the very end. But magically, the charges were dismissed.

  [smiling] 

  Barbara Sabich : The suffering was over. And they were saved!

  Rusty Sabich : [sobbing]  *Saved?*

• Barbara Sabich : You're still in love with her.

  Rusty Sabich : It was never love.

  Barbara Sabich : Then what was it?

  Rusty Sabich : It was never love.

• Rusty Sabich : Don't eat standing up. Sit down.

  Nat Sabich : Food goes down easier. It has the help of gravity.

  Barbara Sabich : Oh, God. We've got another lawyer.