Weekend TV : Autistic Boy’s Skill Fingers the Killers

A 9-year-old autistic boy’s startling ability to draw exact likenesses of everything he sees puts him in jeopardy after he witnesses a brutal killing in the TV movie “The Innocent.”

In a smart detour from his Emmy-winning role in “Frasier,” Kelsey Grammer stars as the detective who, against all odds, encourages the little boy to revisit the crime scene and draw the face of the killers. His relationship with the boy (Keegan Macintosh) lifts the cop’s character, who’s coping with the loss of his own son, from the walking dead.

But what sparks the plot is not sentimentality but writer/co-producer David Venable’s pitched series of chase scenes between the mad-dog killers (starkly etched by Jeff Kober and Gary Werntz) and the silent witness who can finger them. It’s implausible yet still manages to tease our sense of fantasy/suspense.

Under the protective custody of Grammer and the boy’s devoted social worker (the earthy Polly Draper), the youngster gradually emerges from his private hell. The young Macintosh is up to the challenge and his autism is evenly dramatized--without being exploited--under director Mimi Leder.

* “The Innocent” airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on NBC (Channels 4, 36 and 39).