Customer Reviews

The Firm

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Okay, so Tom Cruise gets a job at a Memphis law firm, right? We've all read the book or seen the movie, so how does one recommend this to one uninitiated?

Cruise puts in a solid performance, again playing his guy-who-doesn't-catch-on-for-a-while character he does so well. Sydney Pollack is a great mainstream director, and he pushes all the buttons, as well as giving us a great cast including Gene Hackman, Holly Hunter, Ed Harris, Jeanne Tripplehorn, David Straithairn, Gary Busey, Hal Holbrook, and Wilford Brimley.

Top-notch acting all around, with especially good turns by Brimley and Hunter, playing against type. Hackman is always good to watch and he does a terrific job of making Avery Tolar a likeable guy in spite of his faults. I suppose the most amazing job was done by David Straithairn, who, with less than ten minutes of screen time, paints an indelible portrait of Ray McDeere, Cruise's convict brother. He is the most likeable character in the film.

The plot is the standard rising-above-conflict stuff. Watch this movie (again) for the performances, or for the fine score from Dave Grusin and try to ignore the changes from the book (which I think were justified in making the ending more cinematic and Hollywood).

Nothing can be better than "The Firm" written by John Grisham, who himself is a lawyer. The attentions to details that Grisham manages to pull are just fantastic. I read the book before watching the movie, and hence can compare and tell that the movie has been directed perfectly and in fact a lot more interesting than the book, as the book gets slow in between, but not the movie.

Cruise's is superb, so are the other actors in this movie. I don't know why people have given negative reviews by comparing it with real life scenarios. This is a movie based on a fiction novel, and as rightly said by one of reviewer here;it does its job by entertaining the audiences.

One of the best things about The Firm, is that it doesn't insult the viewer's intelligence by labouring the point. The film and plot are developed through visuals as well as dialogue. From other reviews here, I gather that viewers used to having film plots spoon-fed to them may find this challenging or confusing, but I prefer it. If necessary, try watching the film twice. It is certainly good enough for a repeat viewing.

I'm not a Tom Cruise fan, nor a John Grisham reader, but this is the kind of role he is well suited to. The supporting cast is excellent, excellent, excellent. The film is well paced and the locations, cinematography and soundtrack all combine to create an enjoyable and suspenseful film.

This is the first novel of John Grisham and like the movie, it's very strong in characters and dialogue. At the time he wrote it, there was some pretty good attempts at making good 'lawyer' movies. "Witness for the Prosecution" comes to mind. And we had uncovered a whole raft of great new mystery writers like Parker, Crais, Lehane, George, and Grafton. But the legal-mystery novel was uncharted land and Grisham plowed it over with a passion. How was Grisham to know that like the fall of communism had given "evil empire" writers like Len Deighton and John LeCarre fits, eventually the public would tire at lawyers, even laughing at them?

Nevertheless, it's a good book and also an excellent movie. If there are drawbacks, then truthfully there are some areas that require a little trust. The lawfirm itself for example. Sexual misconduct in a lawfirm? Sure. Misconduct in billing? Always. Stealing from the evidence locker of ill gotten gains? Occasionally. But murdering associates who try to leave? I don't think so. (But it does give Department of Justice cop Ed Harris a great line in the movie, "McDeere, no one has left your firm alive!")

The movie has a solid script and a great cast to carry it. The lovely Jeanne Tripplehorn, the this time not very grandfatherly Wilfred Brimley, Holly Hunter, always a hoot, Gary Busey, Hal Holbrook and Law and Order's Steven Hill, to mention a few. And Tom Cruise as always doing a powerful job who suddenly realizes that the pot of gold at the end of his and Abbey's rainbow has a HAZMAT sticker on it that he's overlooked. Cruise is just great. A true Hitchkockian character, the average man with no where to run.

What would you do if you found that the company you had waited for all your life was evil from top to bottom? That's The Firm. 5 stars. Larry Scantlebury

Legal thrillers rarely satisfy me. It takes a really strong one to peak my interest, hold it and keep me remembering it long after it's through. I guess I just never warmed up to them the way that a lot of movie goers have. That, coupled with the Tom Cruise bug, has kept me away from `The Firm' for some time. I adore Holly Hunter, and her Oscar nomination did make me curious, but as a whole I just wasn't that interested in giving this film a try.

It came on television the other day though, and I had nothing better to do, so I bit.

That said, `The Firm' was actually pretty well done. It was intense when it needed to be, and it contained enough plot twists to keep me interested even after I figured everything out. I will say that some of the plot developments felt a little sticky, especially once Abby and Tammy go all sorts of espionage on the firm, but that aside, the film is quite good.

The film follows Mitch McDeere, a bright lawyer who is being wooed by a prestigious law firm that seems to watch to control everyone around them. Mitch's wife Abby is turned off by this, but Mitch's enthusiasm for the firm and his potential working there outweighs her concerns. Mitch is taken under the wing of Avery Tolar, shown the ropes and given all the perks, and then there is a murder, and then the FBI comes looking for Mitch, to turn him, and he gets an earful, and he starts to dig around and soon all the pieces start to fit together and Mitch realizes that this prestigious firm has some very unorthodox practices that could threaten his marriage, his profession and ultimately his life.

I have never felt Tom Cruise was as talented as he is made out to be. Yes, when he hits it he usually leaves a lasting impression (um, he was all kinds of stellar in `Eyes Wide Shut' and he was definitely Oscar worthy in `Jerry Maguire') but for the most part he is either outshone by the rest of the cast (as in `Rain Man') or simply not that impressive (I need to rewatch `Top Gun' but I do remember being less than impressed with Cruise). Here he is actually pretty good. He holds his own alongside Hackman (which is hard to do) and delivers a believable and relatable performance.

He's not best-in-show though.

`The Firm' is littered with actors doing their best to grab out attention. The most successful would have to be Holly Hunter who just breezes though her performance as if it were effortless for her. She is witty and charismatic and adorable to boot; and when she wants to lay on the drama she can and does so brilliantly. Gene Hackman is also on the top of his game; sly and cunning and very approachable which only adds layers to his characters mystery. Hal Holbrook is ruthless as Oliver Lambert and commands in his few scenes. David Strathairn is commanding if not a little out of place here (I really didn't like his characters arc, but whatever). Jeanne Tripplehorn gets better and better as the film progresses. I think that Ed Harris is a pretty good actor, but he seems wasted here in my opinion.

In the end I must say that `The Firm' is a far better film than I expected it to be. No, it is not a favorite of mine (based on genre alone really) but it manages to be memorable and exciting and I will watch it again, I'm sure of that. I wish that they had cleaned up the ending a tad, for as the plot keeps twisting the film gets a little messy, but that messiness makes for an entertaining roller coaster that serves it purpose.

In spite of his lowly social origins and elder brother in jail for manslaughter, Mitch McDeere has managed to make himself into a high-flying Harvard Law School graduate. Offers are flying in but the most lucrative comes from a small but seemingly extremely wealthy Memphis law firm. So off he goes to Tennessee to a life of seductive affluence. Next thing we know he's learning that his new employers are the main legal representatives of the mob and the FBI want him to turn over the files. If he does, he'll be disbarred for life for breaking client confidentiality, not to mention living in permanent fear of violent retribution for his betrayal. If tells the FBI to get lost and stays with the firm, he's hopelessly morally compromised and, sooner or later, on his way to jail. If he leaves they will certainly have him killed. Can he think of a cunning plan to get him through the horns of this nasty little trilemma? Course he can, silly. This is Tom Cruise we're talking about.

Obviously this is pretty trashy stuff. But it's still hugely entertaining stuff and all 154 minutes of it flies past. Apart from Altman's `Gingerbread Man' it's much the best of the various glossy Grisham adaptations we've been subjected to and it would be churlish to deny that it's all great fun. Little credit for this goes to Cruise as the smart but not very likeable yuppy lawyer at the centre of the story nor to Jeanne Tripplehorn as his boring drip of a wife. But it's very nicely directed by Pollack with some very strong supporting performances especially from Gary Busey and Holly Hunter, a far more likeable couple representating the rather less grand side of the legal profession. By far the most memorable thing about it is Gene Hackman who simply steals it as McDeere's troubled, corrupt but nonetheless morally ambivalent legal mentor.

The book was just so much better that it was hard to get into the movie. I don't think Tom Cruise was best suited for the role. He lacked a maturity even for a young lawyer and his performance was uneven. But the movie looks good and it is entertaining, but if you've read the book you'll find yourself drawing unfavorable comparisons.

And I'll never forget the innovative sound track - all solo piano. Powerful, driving piano at times. Love it. Where is that sound track CD of this hot ride of a film?

After reading John Grisham's book, which I simply couldn't put down, I was excited for the movie. But when I finally saw it, I was a disappointed. While for the most part, it was a decent film, there were a few things that bothered me too much to really say I liked the movie. First off, the music was terribly mismatched for the film. When Mitch is pursued near the end of the movie, it is suspenseful and appealing, but the rest of the movie is filled with music that doesn't really seem to go with the overall mood of the movie. I was constantly annoyed by this watching THE FIRM. While the casting for the most part is good, I think Jeanne Tripplehorn is badly miscast as the wife. When reading the book, I had a totally different picture of how Abby would act and Tripplehorn was nowhere near it. When I first saw Holly Hunter in her role, it was also totally different than how I pictured Tammy would look, but I gradually accepted Hunter in this role because she fitted herself into the character. This never seemed to happen with Abby. Tom Cruise was a good choice for Mitch, and most of the rest of the cast is also very good. Also, the colors in the film were always so bright. I would have thought the film should be darker, especially with scenes inside the firm, to create the right atmosphere. But the firm, supposedly our "bad guy" in the film, never even feels threatening! The audience doesn't feel the sense of paranoia the readers of the book did, that the firm was always watching and waiting, this dark entity just waiting to swallow Mitch inside it. But my biggest problem with film is the drastic changing of the ending of the book. The film is remarkably faithful to Grisham for awhile, before veering way off course from the book to a completely different ending. While this ending doesn't ruin the movie, it does change it so much that it seemed like it might as well have belonged to a different film. There wasn't anything wrong with Grisham's version; why change it? Instead of all of Mitch's satisfying twists and turns in the book, we get what might be a bigger twist with ultimately a lot less bite. Adding the action sequences with Mitch being pursued was a nice touch for the audience, to keep them entertained through the end of the movie. And while I did like the twist with Abby and Avery, the movie allows too much time to be spent on Mitch and Abby's relationship, which shouldn't be the primary concern. I looked the book's approach to this much, much better. The DVD's extras are also very skimpy. A commentary about why Pollack decided to change so much of the book would have been appreciated. This isn't a bad movie, but it is a lot less satisfying than the thrilling book it's based on.

Some people seem to think 'the Firm ' a bad movie. I do not agree. In fact, if I have to choose, I think this is one of the best movies made after Grisham's novels. The plot has been modelled loosely on the book, and is in fact an improvement, especially the end. The one objection I have is to the length. One hundred and fifty minutes is really too long for a thriller such as this. No matter how good the story, you can hardly help that your attention starts slipping halfway. Even so, the last thirty minutes are suspenseful enough, that it makes for a real climax. The story is in itself well balanced, but the scenes have been drawn out too far. A pity, but not more than that. Good acting, especially by Gene Hackman as the corrupt lawyer and Holly Hunter as Tom Cruise's helper save the movie from becoming a bore. On the whole, a good, but not spectacular thriller.