♥♥♥
+ 3rd Worst Movie of the Year
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| Tom Cruise looking ponderous and running in a suit in a steely blue-toned poster for Sydney Pollack's The Firm could really sell a film in 1993 |
A freshly Harvard-graduated lawyer joins a firm in Memphis that launders mob money, and he soon gets the attention of the FBI.
The Firm is written by David Rabe (Streamers (1983)), Robert Towne (Drive, He Said (1971)) and David Rayfiel (The Morning After (1986)), adapting John Grisham's (The Summons (2002)) same-titled 1991 bestseller, and directed by great Indianan filmmaker Sydney Pollack (Tootsie (1982)). 1993 saw the release of another high-profile Grisham adaptation, Alan J. Pakula's infinitely better thriller masterpiece The Pelican Brief.
The Memphis law-firm is presented as an almost mythical, pompous institution, and the story's point of having this firm laundering the entire earnings of the Chicago mob seems a bit silly. But besides this the narrative unfolds without a hitch, as an intimidating gang of fine actors (including Gene Hackman (Wyatt Earp (1994)), Ed Harris (Sweetwater (2013)), Hal Holbrook (Haven (2001, TV movie)), Jerry Harding (The Magnificent Seven (1998, TV-series)) and others) doodle around to Dave Grusin's jazzy piano score.
Tom Cruise (The Mummy (2017)) leads confidently, but his wife is played without vision by Jeanne Tripplehorn (Steal This Movie (2000)), and since The Firm places considerable weight upon their relationship, - and has a long running time, - it lowers the suspense, which lives best in the film's noirish, cat-and-mouse-like scenes.
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1993 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Cost: 42 mil. $
Box office: 270.2 mil. $
= Huge hit
[The Firm premiered 23 June (New York) and runs 154 minutes. Shooting took place in Washington, Memphis, Tennessee, the Cayman Islands, Massachusetts, including Boston, Arkansas, and Washington, D.C. from November 1992 - March 1993. Hackman's credit was a matter of dispute, as Cruise's contract stipulated above-title credit for him alone. Hackman got pre-title credit in the film and went uncredited in the end credit scroll and on the posters. The film is reportedly faithful to the novel in most respects but has a different ending. The film opened #1 to a 25.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed atop for another two weeks and stayed in the top 5 for two more weeks (#3-#3) and grossed 158.3 mil. $ (58.6 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this review. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Supporting Actress (Holly Hunter, who won the Best Actress Oscar that year for her performance in The Piano), lost to Anna Paquin in The Piano, and Best Score (Grusin), lost to John Williams for Schindler's List. It was also nominated for a BAFTA, a Grammy and received other honors. A TV-series sequel also called The Firm was released in 2012 and canceled after its first season. Pollack returned with Sabrina (1995). Cruise returned in Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994). The Firm is certified fresh at 76 % with a 6.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
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