Straight out of Harvard Law, Mitch McDeere is being courted by some of the biggest and best law firms in the country. Finishing at the top of his class has afforded him the benefit of being wanted by nearly every firm that matters to him. This includes great financial packages as well as many benefits, but there is one particular firm out of Memphis that wants him more than everyone else. Setting their sights on him, they give him an offer that he simply cannot pass up in the end. So, despite the thought that he would end up in a city like New York or Los Angeles, he and his wife Abby decide to take the offer and move to Memphis. Though she has reservations, Mitch is going to jump in feet first for the chance to make something of himself, and create a great career for himself. But everything is not roses, as he begins to suspect something is going on behind the scenes at his new firm. Four lawyers have ended up dead over the past year, and when he is approached by the FBI to give them information about his firm, he starts to suspect that there might be some teeth to his own suspicions. Being the new person on the block, who hasn't even passed his bar exam yet, he doesn't have a leg to stand on, nor does he know what to do with the increasingly tense work situation.

John Grisham wrote The Film, and it was the perfect type of novel to adapt to the big screen. A lot of people loved the book, and had high expectations when they saw it would make it to theaters. I think that those high expectations could have overwhelmed the film itself, and caused some people to dislike this particular vehicle. Sydney Pollack was brought on to direct the film (he also did Three Days of the Condor and Out of Africa) and it was a safe choice with an established Director. Cast in the lead was Tom Cruise, with Jeanne Tripplehorn playing his wife Abby. Fresh off A Few Good Men Cruise was really bankable, and the hope was he would single-handedly make this film a success. In order to add insurance to that, he was surrounded by many other great actors including Gene Hackman as his mentor at the firm Avery, and Ed Harris as a FBI agent that you would not want to meet in any dark alleys. Wilford Brimley plays the security officer at the firm, David Strathairn plays Mitch's brother, Gary Busey plays a detective, and Holly Hunter plays the secretary for Busey. With a cast like this, it is sure to create a fan out of me. With a lot of other variables added to the mix, this movie was off to a great start in my opinion.

The dramatic aspect of The Firm, is that Cruise's character is given many traits that the normal person would find in common with him. He is in a new job in a new city, he doesn't know very many people, or who to trust, and as a result he is almost entirely on his own when the stress of the job starts to mount up. Of course he has his wife on his side, but if she doesn't understand what is going on at the firm, she isn't going to be able to help him out of the jam he has put himself in. We can also relate with the emotional situations that he is put in, because he is being asked by the FBI to do things that would violate his oath as a lawyer, and basically get him dis-barred if it were to surface in a court of law. Caught between what is right, and what he must do to keep his job, his mind is going to have to be working on all cylinders to get out of this predicament. On one side he has a firm that is working on some very shady deals, and on the other side he has FBI agents working their hardest to take the firm down whether he helps them or not. It isn't going to be pretty if he cannot find a way out, and he doesn't want to jeopardize his own future, or that of his wife's if he can help it.

I think that at this particular point in his career, Tom Cruise was perfect for the lead role. He brought with him a subtle innocence that hadn't been ruined by years in the movie business, and because of that, his character is able to win over the minds of the audience. We are pulling for him every step of the way, and willing him to find a way out of this impossible situation. The movie does a good job of building on itself, and giving us little pieces of information along the way, to further draw us into the story. We learn as the lead character learns, and nearly all of the scenes involve Cruise as the primary, and this helps the film come out on top in the end. I really liked Holly Hunter in this movie, and I think that she was great as a spunky secretary who wants to help Mitch find a way out. I also liked Ed Harris a lot as the stodgy FBI agent who has his own "God-Complex" going on. There were a few slow parts to the film though, and some people might not like the constant single piano score that makes up most of the music in the film. If you can look past those slight faults, I think that you can find a very enjoyable film that is well worth seeing or owning on DVD.












Recommended:
Yes