John Grisham fairly burst on the scene with the very definition of a page-turner in the legal thriller The Firm. His novel is slick, manipulative, undeniably fast-paced and suspenseful. Keep those last two terms in mind, because fast-paced and suspenseful can never be ascribed to the stillborn, ponderous mess that Sydney Pollack perpetrates on the viewer.
The storyline centers on idealistic young attorney Tom Cruise, who joins a prestigious Southern law firm that ends up having ties to organized crime and begins to take control of his life. The novel details the dawning realization and horror that the attorney and his wife face when it is discovered that they are basically owned by The Firm and their lives are in danger should they ever step out of line. The film details pretty much the same story with some rather wrong-headed derivations and devoid of any tensions or excitement.
The cast is par excellence. There is not even a minor role not inhabited by a first-rate actor. Cruise is ideally cast as the attorney. Gene Hackman is reliable as his mentor at the firm. Unfortunately, of the remaining cast, only Holly Hunter makes much of an impression as a canny private detective's secretary who ends up helping the lead couple. Jeanne Tripplehorn spends much of the film looking constipated as Cruise's wife. The film offers her a mid-way revelation that results in her spending an obscene amount of time moping on a set of swings. The various shady characters at the firm that instilled such fear and distrust in the novel are inhabited on screen by a diversity of non-threatening, retirement age actors - like Hal Holbrook. And to play the terrifying head of security and enforcer of the firm - the man that no one wants to mess with - Pollack casts Wilford Brimley - the avuncular grandfather figure from the oat bran commercials. Apparently Pollack was going for irony, but it blows up in his face. There is something to be said when Ed Harris' relatively sympathetic FBI agent comes off as more of a threat than the assassins dogging Cruise. With the likes of Holbrook and Brimley out to get him, Cruise just has to rev up to a hearty shuffle in order to avoid them.
The pace is the film's worst problem. It is stagnant from start to finish. There is literally no stretch of excitement in the entire film based on a novel that was swimming in it. Part of the issue is that Pollack seems to think the story is of biblical importance and needs to be portrayed with unflagging solemnity - in short, he is too good to stoop to a thrill. The film is tragically overlong and easily feels like triple the length it is. Anything that was remotely exciting from the novel has been removed or depicted in such a painfully tedious fashion lest one break a sweat.
Even worse, changes made in the story and the outcome in particular make no sense. The true evil of the firm was actually the organized crime syndicate that it fronted for. In the film, the organized crime syndicate is depicted as almost a neutral figure that can be won over by Cruise's reasoning and savvy, while the firm itself it depicted as the ultimate evil (HUH?). We never truly feel that Cruise and Tripplehorn are ever in any serious danger and that, coupled with the staggering pace and running time, gives us no rooting interest in the outcome. And when the outcome is as weak as it is here, one is just as happy not to wait around for it.
The score sounds like low-rent jazz and often detracts even further from the "action".
This production is a veritable textbook on how not to adapt a popular page-turner. A lumbering, tortuous, joyless mess devoid of tension, suspense, excitement or any recognizable human emotion. Even the most undiscerning viewers will find themselves looking at their watches and tapping their feet prior to the halfway mark. A complete misfire and a total dud - this film is indeed painful.
The storyline centers on idealistic young attorney Tom Cruise, who joins a prestigious Southern law firm that ends up having ties to organized crime and begins to take control of his life. The novel details the dawning realization and horror that the attorney and his wife face when it is discovered that they are basically owned by The Firm and their lives are in danger should they ever step out of line. The film details pretty much the same story with some rather wrong-headed derivations and devoid of any tensions or excitement.
The cast is par excellence. There is not even a minor role not inhabited by a first-rate actor. Cruise is ideally cast as the attorney. Gene Hackman is reliable as his mentor at the firm. Unfortunately, of the remaining cast, only Holly Hunter makes much of an impression as a canny private detective's secretary who ends up helping the lead couple. Jeanne Tripplehorn spends much of the film looking constipated as Cruise's wife. The film offers her a mid-way revelation that results in her spending an obscene amount of time moping on a set of swings. The various shady characters at the firm that instilled such fear and distrust in the novel are inhabited on screen by a diversity of non-threatening, retirement age actors - like Hal Holbrook. And to play the terrifying head of security and enforcer of the firm - the man that no one wants to mess with - Pollack casts Wilford Brimley - the avuncular grandfather figure from the oat bran commercials. Apparently Pollack was going for irony, but it blows up in his face. There is something to be said when Ed Harris' relatively sympathetic FBI agent comes off as more of a threat than the assassins dogging Cruise. With the likes of Holbrook and Brimley out to get him, Cruise just has to rev up to a hearty shuffle in order to avoid them.
The pace is the film's worst problem. It is stagnant from start to finish. There is literally no stretch of excitement in the entire film based on a novel that was swimming in it. Part of the issue is that Pollack seems to think the story is of biblical importance and needs to be portrayed with unflagging solemnity - in short, he is too good to stoop to a thrill. The film is tragically overlong and easily feels like triple the length it is. Anything that was remotely exciting from the novel has been removed or depicted in such a painfully tedious fashion lest one break a sweat.
Even worse, changes made in the story and the outcome in particular make no sense. The true evil of the firm was actually the organized crime syndicate that it fronted for. In the film, the organized crime syndicate is depicted as almost a neutral figure that can be won over by Cruise's reasoning and savvy, while the firm itself it depicted as the ultimate evil (HUH?). We never truly feel that Cruise and Tripplehorn are ever in any serious danger and that, coupled with the staggering pace and running time, gives us no rooting interest in the outcome. And when the outcome is as weak as it is here, one is just as happy not to wait around for it.
The score sounds like low-rent jazz and often detracts even further from the "action".
This production is a veritable textbook on how not to adapt a popular page-turner. A lumbering, tortuous, joyless mess devoid of tension, suspense, excitement or any recognizable human emotion. Even the most undiscerning viewers will find themselves looking at their watches and tapping their feet prior to the halfway mark. A complete misfire and a total dud - this film is indeed painful.