The story is all-too-familiar. In a depressed small American town, the mines have been closed, and the chief business of the community is drugs. Based on a true story, "Above Suspicion" recounts how a diligent FBI agent with poor personal boundaries compromised his moral code, which eventually ruined lives.

In many ways, the protagonist of the film is Pikeville, Kentucky. The filmmakers frequently pan to the beautiful forested area that is in stark contrast to the dilapidated buildings and sordid details of lives frittered away by small-time drug trafficking and almost comical attempts at bank robberies.

Desperate to get out of town, the drug addict Susan Smith breaks the local code of silence and snitches to FBI agent Mark Putnam. Her goal is to get into rehab, relocate, and have enough money to start a new life. She never succeeds in any of those objectives. Even worse, she decides to use all of her powers and charms to become Mrs. Mark Putnam.

The acting was first-rate, as the doomed Susan presses her luck with FBI agent Putnam, who squanders his career and his family for his short-lived romance with Susan. Slowly, the hour glass was running out on the ill-starred relationship, with Mark's wife Kathie as the saddest victim of all in a genuine American tragedy.