The Firm | | Cast : | Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman | | Director : | Sydney Pollack | | Studio : | Paramount Studio | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | June 30, 1993 | | DVD Released Date : | August 19, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 28, 2005 | | Summary | 2 and 1/2 stars. A weird, confusing movie | Content
 | I watched this movie last night having heard that it was a really good movie. But, I guess I wasn't watching the same movie because the movie that I saw wasn't good. The movie had a great cast with Tom Cruise, Ed Harris and Gene Hackman and a great plot. The plot is about a Harvard Law graduate who takes a job from a small Memphis firm. The firm offered him lots of money, a mercedes and a nice house. So life is of course perfect for the graduate and his wife. WRONG. After two men from the firm mysteriously die, the FBI contacts the grad. and ask him to retrieve classified documents from the firm. I don't want to give away anymore or else I'll give away spoilers, but the movie is a dissapointment. The editor's review from Amazon says it's fast paced. On the contrary. The movie is very slow, quite boring and very confusing. The whole plan that the grad. sets up is very confusing and isn't well explained, and the movie progresses VERY slowly. Besides being confusing and boring, the music was also annoying. It didn't go whatsoever with the movie Towards the end, at one suspensful moment, there's the happy weird music that doesn't at all go along with it.
The acting is great but everything else is just terrible and this movie doesn't seem believable at all. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 25, 2005 | | Summary | Count the coincidences | Content
| As Aristotle himself said, drama is only supposed to "imitate" real life. Some of our greatest movies, plays and books pivot on an improbable coincidence, which allows the characters to realize their destinies in an efficient way for the audience. Fine. But does there ever come a point where you have too many coincidences? "The Firm" is an excellent case study. Let's see...
--It so happens that Cruise's character has a brother in prison. As I recall, it's a federal facility, which is important because the FBI is involved.
--Also, even though we've established that "the firm" tracks every move made by its associates and partners, somehow the fact of Cruise's brother's imprisonment escapes them. However, we later find out that the firm has a source inside the very same prison.
-- It so happens that Gene Hackman's character develops a crush on Cruise's wife. This is important because she is needed to distract him long enough to allow some documents to be copied. It is even more important because Hackman's tenderhearted fondness for her saves her life...while costing him his own.
--It also so happens that this firm that tries so hard to keep a low profile so it can act as the mob's law firm engages in tawdry overbilling of clients. This is important because it is a crime that Cruise's character does not commit, so he won't have to plead guilty as a cooperating witness, and won't be disbarred. Despite being a brilliant law student, Cruise does not recognize it is a federal crime until this is explained to him by a p-d off client.
--It also so happens that the mob boss decides at a crucial time to make a personal visit to Memphis, even though there is no real reason for him to do so; in fact, it's probably a reckless decision. This is important because only by addressing the capo di tutti capo in person can Cruise save himself from assassination.
All these coincidences happen, and perhaps a few more I overlooked. Without them, the story could not turn out like it does. Then throw in the normal superhuman attributes given to both the villains and the hero. For example, the paid assassin manages to outrun a tram over a course of at least a mile, and is not winded, even though he does not appear to be an athlete. Cruise's wife knows how to slip Gene Hackman an effective mickey, even though up til now, her life experience is as a schoolteacher.
This movie (like the book) is sold to audiences because the basic premise is so creepy, and yet plausible. But then they have to get Cruise out of the firm, alive and kicking, and they couldn't figure out how to do it and have it make any sense. Still, it's directed with such verve, it's kind of fun. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 19, 2005 | | Summary | A real if somewhat guilty pleasure | Content
| In spite of his lowly social origins and elder brother in jail for manslaughter, Mitch McDeere has managed to make himself into a high-flying Harvard Law School graduate. Offers are flying in but the most lucrative comes from a small but seemingly extremely wealthy Memphis law firm. So off he goes to Tennessee to a life of seductive affluence. Next thing we know he's learning that his new employers are the main legal representatives of the mob and the FBI want him to turn over the files. If he does, he'll be disbarred for life for breaking client confidentiality, not to mention living in permanent fear of violent retribution for his betrayal. If tells the FBI to get lost and stays with the firm, he's hopelessly morally compromised and, sooner or later, on his way to jail. If he leaves they will certainly have him killed. Can he think of a cunning plan to get him through the horns of this nasty little trilemma? Course he can, silly. This is Tom Cruise we're talking about.
Obviously this is pretty trashy stuff. But it's still hugely entertaining stuff and all 154 minutes of it flies past. Apart from Altman's `Gingerbread Man' it's much the best of the various glossy Grisham adaptations we've been subjected to and it would be churlish to deny that it's all great fun. Little credit for this goes to Cruise as the smart but not very likeable yuppy lawyer at the centre of the story nor to Jeanne Tripplehorn as his boring drip of a wife. But it's very nicely directed by Pollack with some very strong supporting performances especially from Gary Busey and Holly Hunter, a far more likeable couple representating the rather less grand side of the legal profession. By far the most memorable thing about it is Gene Hackman who simply steals it as McDeere's troubled, corrupt but nonetheless morally ambivalent legal mentor.
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| Rating | | | Date | March 26, 2005 | | Summary | Loved this movie! | Content
| Well acted...Well directed and simply put...Well executed! Buy/Rent it for yourself and see. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 21, 2005 | | Summary | book...movie both GREAT | Content
| I just re-read the book and watch the movie at least a couple of times a year. Love it. Which was better? Both are great. While you miss the Grisham voice in the movie, the film was tighter, wrapping up lots of loose ends. All the actors were terrific. Each version of the Firm is entertaining in its own way. Highly recommended! |
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