Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Introduction
I usually love to watch movies adapted from the novels that I get a chance to read and compare the novel with its screenplay adaptation. To add to that I love to do that with a person who has not read the novel, so that I can guage the effectiveness of the screen adaptation. So, when I saw the DVD of The Firm a movie that I did not know existed, I decided to try out.

The Plot
Mitch Mcdeere (Tom Cruise) is in the final year of his college and looking for jobs and then he gets an offer that he cannot refuse from a little know law firm working from Memphis. They have given a straight 20% up on the best offer that Mitch has till then, plus House loan and a Mercedes to boot. Needless to say, Mitch jumps at the offer.

Mitch and wife Abby (Jeanne Triplehorn) shift to Memphis as Mitch looks forward to working his way to partnership in the firm. Abby finds the Firm great at first, then starts seeing that they meddle a bit too much into the private life of the employees. Then comes the shattering news of two employees of Firm who are killed in a tragic accident. The fact remains that till date no one has left the firm, i.e. alive.

Mitch starts feeling slightly uncomfortable when he bumps onto a FBI agent Tarrance (Ed Harris) who tells him that there have been 4 deaths in the firm in recent history all in mysterious circumstances and that the firm is involved in some kind of illegal activities. Tarrance asks Mitch to turn approver and make copies of the files of the firm and hand it over to FBI.

Mitch is caught between the devil and deep sea and finds himself unable to trust anyone either the firm or the fbi and both seem to know too much about him and his family for him not to join any one.

So what does Mitch do? Is he able to leave the Firm? Does he turn approver? Check this movie for the details.

Critic's Viewpoint
Sydney Pollack's The Firm is based on a novel by the same name by John Grisham. The novel turned out to be a quite popular one and thus the movie offering.

Tom Cruise stars as Mitch Mcdeere the eager beaver out of college who is out to prove himself in the tough competitive world and finds himself enmeshed in this tricky firm. Cruise is a fine actor and gives a credible performance as the boy caught between ambition and morality. Apart from the professional struggle his relation with his wife undergoes a lot of strain during the whole episode and Tom has all the right expressions to keep you engrossed.

Amongst others Jeanne Triplehorn gives an understated performance and looks good when she is on screen. Gene Hackman as Avery Tolar plays Mitch's mentor in the movie and looks the accomplished actor that he is. The rest of the crew have also given decent performances. I was little disappointed with Ed Harris though as his performance as the FBI agent was not the forcing or telling performance that you have now come to expect from FBI agents.

Coming to the screen adaptation of the novel, my wife who has not read the novel was struggling to get in terms with the initial half of the movie as the movie seemed to be moving too fast for her. I had to do a quick de-brief in the middle to get her upto pace. Again towards the end I could see that she was struggling to keep pace with what was happening. That said, I still feel The Firm to be one of the better movie adaptation of a novel because of two major aspects.

Firstly, it managed to keep the essence of the novel intact and secondly, it actually added value to the novel. To compress a 300-odd page novel into a 90 minute movie takes a decent effort and Syndney Pollack must get a pat on the back for retaining the essence in this effort. The value addition was in the climax, which I thought was slightly better than the novel's ending. In the novel, Mitch is potrayed as a God in the end doing whatever he wants and getting away with it. In the movie, Mitch has be demoted to a super brainy hero who gets away with a lot. So that was a welcome change.

The movie moves briskly and at some places is a bit too fast paced for my liking. The cinematography and the background score are good and seem to fit the mood of the movie.

Summary
Purely, based on the adaptation, this movie gets a 4 star rating. If we include the plot and performances it would average around 3.5 on my richter scale. So I would be lenient and give this movie a 4 star rating.

The Novel
The Firm was one of the most popular novel by John Grisham. For more details on this check out the complete review at http://www.epinions.com/content_167770033796.

PS: The name of the movie is The Firm, but is listed at epinions under Firm. Category Leads should correct this if possible as I was searching for the movie and could not get it. Luckily, I searched under Tom Cruise's movie and found this one out.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older