‘Somewhere, inside, in the dark, the firm is listening...’
Whenever I hear the words ‘John Grisham thriller’, my mind immediately starts listing the synonyms for ‘boring’. Tedious. Dull. Monotonous. Golf. The list goes on. This is actually wildly unfair because the only Grisham adaptation I had seen before The Firm was Runaway Jury – and I mostly enjoyed it. But the titles of some of his other works (Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Chamber) just leave me cold. Heck, even the posters all look the same.
And yet, I sat down to watch The Firm anyway. Mostly because of little Tommy Cruise, but also because of Gene Hackman. And because it’s from the 90s, of course. And was it boring? Parts of it certainly were. But with a cast this good, it’s almost impossible to make a bad film.
Mitch McDeere (Cruise) is an up and coming lawyer, sought after by all the big law firms, on his way to superstardom. When Mitch starts to sense something weird going on at his new law firm, he finds himself in a game of cat-and-mouse (is there any Grisham plot description that doesn’t include the phrase ‘a game of cat-and-mouse’) between his mentor Avery (Gene Hackman), his boss Lambert (Hal Holbrook) and highly strung detective Wayne Tarrance (Ed Harris). And if you think that’s an impressive cast, throw in appearances from Holly Hunter, Gary Busey and Jeanne Tripplehorn, and you really are cooking with gas.
The Firm starts off strongly with Cruise in full charm offensive mode and Hackman wonderful as his world weary mentor. As the plot becomes ever more convoluted and labyrinthine however, the whole thing sags and crumples under the weight of its own seriousness. Cruise also played a hot shot lawyer this same year in A Few Good Men, and yet the two performances could hardly be more different. TC seems oddly restrained here, again mostly as a result of the source material, and this ensures that the ludicrous 210 minute running time often drags.
The talented cast and the steady hand of Sydney Pollack behind the camera ensure that The Firm is certainly a competent film, but other than the opening half hour and the satisfying conclusion, there is nothing here with any lasting appeal. I want be rushing to watch the other Grisham adaptations any time soon…