A Firma

This is a long (154 minutes) but pretty solid drama-suspense story about corporate corruption. The film features a well-known cast, and as soon as the action kicks in this becomes a very tense story.

Tom Cruise is very good as the hotshot lawyer, as is Jeanne Tripplehorn who plays his unhappy wife. This is a complex story at times, one not always easily understood, especially the ending. So much is explained so fast at the end it's tough to comprehend it all.

Wilfred Brimley, Gene Hackman, Hal Holbrook, Holly Hunter, Robert Strathairn and Ed Harris all make this a really deep, impressive cast. For more details of the story, check some of the other reviews.

Though not the best of the Grisham adaptations, this is up to the usual high standard in plot and stars that Grisham movies have become associated with. The plot on this one is a little more far-fetched probably on account of the fact that this was one of Grisham's first works, escapism and entertainment seem to be the most prominent here, other Grisham works had begun to develop other traits alongside populism, like being almost topical and seeming to make social comment on issues that Grisham must have had an inside eye on when he was actually involved in the legal business for all those years. The Rainmaker is a great example of this when a young lawyer takes on a pro bono case of a widow's suit against a rogue insurance company that wouldn't pay up on a claim for her son's illness, and who as a result died from it. You will find none of this in the Firm, it is the straightforward story of a young lawyer whose life becomes entangled in the law firm from hell, which has all the usual mafia connections and all the usual FBI hardball characters battling with the caricatures from the Mafia. It does however make great entertainment , you will soon forget how far-fetched and improbable it all is, as you will become instantly fascinated, and stick with 155 minutes of plot twists and turns.

When "The Firm" came out was - believe it or not - the first time that I had ever heard of Tom Cruise (although I didn't see the movie until several years later). And let me tell you, this was a great introduction. Cruise plays novice lawyer Mitch McDeere, who goes to work for a Memphis firm. With this firm, he has everything that anyone could want. But there's the question: why does everything seem so perfect? The answer lies in the firm's unseemly other side. And they're not just going to let Mitch blow their cover.

Sydney Pollack pulled off everything perfectly here. It's sort of like an Ira Levin novel how everything plays out. You may be suspicious of everything after seeing this movie. Above all, it shows that Tom Cruise can actually do a good job when he tries. Also starring Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Hal Holbrook, Wilford Brimley, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, David Strathairn and Gary Busey.

It's hard to believe that this was the first movie adaptation of a John Grisham novel.

Got to love Tom Cruise cruising his way through the Firm. Good screen play, great acting and exciting story. Don't get tired at all during these 2.5h of parallell stories of the characters and to see how they all intervene in each others lives.

Even get some action in the film toward the end. If you feel like an exciting film with all your traditional 90 vibe in style, talk and play - make sure to watch the Firm. Great job everyone!

The Firm (1993)

The twist in the plot as you realize this Memphis law firm is not what it seems, and the rather innocent freshman lawyer played by Tom Cruise is slow to catch on, is the core of the movie, and a relief. It starts steadily, or slowly, depending on your patience, and in fact plays many scenes out in more detail than we need for a kind of bookish thriller. It's not a bad ride, and there are some further, minor twists, but it's not packed tightly enough, or frankly original enough, to lift its boots out of the sand.

Director Sydney Pollack, hugely successful as a director and actor, might have just had bad scriptwriting here by David Rabe, because John Grisham's book had proved itself. The acting is really solid (I'm no Cruise fan, but he's fine), but the characters are often doing things that just don't quite follow, or that are improbable or stupid. Or they end up doing something dangerous and the danger is either watered down or ridiculous. Examples that come to mind are how they show Cruise discovering or stealing or xeroxing files. We get the plot, but it lumbers along, or is just shown, not built up with suspense. The cinematographer takes a hit here, I think. Things are often nicely framed and routinely well done, but a thriller needs to hide some things, show some things, create ambiance and mystery, and so on, visually. It doesn't really happen.

So, for a kind of technical high-stakes, rich person's good-guy bad-guy suspense film, it will get you through, but barely. By the last five minutes, if you aren't sucked in, you'll want to scream "hurry up!"