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Amazon.co.uk Review
When released in 1997, The Gingerbread Man was the only John Grisham movie that did not use one of the popular novelist's bestsellers as its inspiration. Rather, it's based on an original screenplay by Grisham that displays the author's familiar flair for Southern characters and settings within a labyrinthine plot propelled by his trademark narrative twists and turns. Sporting a spot-on Georgian accent, Kenneth Branagh plays a Savannah attorney who comes to the assistance of a troubled woman (Embeth Davidtz) and finds himself enmeshed in a scenario involving the woman's father (Robert Duvall) that grows increasingly complex and dangerous, where nothing, of course, is really as it seems. It's a totally absorbing movie made in the modern film noir tradition; what's most interesting here (and most underrated by critics at the time) is the combination of Grisham's mainstream mystery and the offbeat style of maverick director Robert Altman. Despite a battle with executives that nearly caused Altman to disown the film, The Gingerbread Man demonstrates the director's skill in bringing a fresh, characteristically offbeat approach to conventional material, especially in the use of a threatening hurricane to hold the plot in a state of dangerous urgency. Unfortunately overlooked during its theatrical release, this intelligent thriller provides a fine double bill with Francis Coppola's film of Grisham's The Rainmaker. --Jeff Shannon
Special Features
1.85 Wide Screen
French
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English French
Dolby Digital 5.1
Dutch\English\French
French
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English French
Dolby Digital 5.1
Dutch\English\French
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Robert Altman - Grisham Adaption.,
By
This review is from: The Gingerbread Man [DVD] [1998] (DVD)
The Gingerbread Man is my favourite film of a John Grisham story. The movie has a very good cast and the direction by Robert Altman is suberb. You are entertained by Robert Duvall, Famke Jansen,Tom Berenger, Robert Downey Junior and others for just under 2 hours in a thoroughly enjoyable thriller. The film isn't massively ambitious and the plot not that complex but it works well in an almost 'Cape Fear' style and I found the story satisfying and not too cliched.
If your a Robert Altman fan don't expect a film like Short Cuts, The Player, The Long Goodbye or McCabe and Mrs Miller, this film is played fast and in a more usual Hollywood way, but that suits the Grisham story. The film will never be regarded as a classic but it's well worth a watch for the cast, the director and the Grisham plot.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Less ambitious than most Altman, but succeeds on it's own terms,
By
This review is from: The Gingerbread Man [DVD] [1998] (DVD)
One could see this as 'Short Cuts' correlative
opposite. That was a movie with great ambitions, that - while good - fell just short. This is a movie of much lesser aim (just a good tense thriller/mystery), that's much more successful on it's own terms. The acting is very good throughout. It may be my favorite Kenneth Branagh performance; understated and subtle. And a number of the scenes really are tense. Altman finds some clever ways to create suspense with sound and image that aren't just retreads of what we've seen before. Admittedly, some of the twists are pretty creaky and predictable, the logic sometimes questionable, and the moral POV of the film is a bit confusing. But this still blows most modern Hollywood thrillers out of the water.
5.0 out of 5 stars
expected it to be better!,
By
This review is from: The Gingerbread Man [DVD] [1998] (DVD)
After reading all of his books and a few of the films based on books, I felt a bit let down by this one! did not find it as thrilling as I had expected!
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