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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Whilst I would not disagree with the age old adage that the book is always better than the film in the case of this superb movie, I would argue that this excellent film takes on the challenge of one of John Grisham's most complex and involved novels and pulls it off not only with great style but with fantastic feeling also.
The casting in this film is simply excellent; Matt Damon takes the role of rookie lawyer Rudy Baylor trying his first court case and shows off wonderfully the insecurities but also the righteousness his character has. Supporting brilliantly well is the incomparable Danny De Vito as Rudy's paralegal, scruffy and irregular he provides the much needed street wisdom the naive Baylor lacks.
**Possible Spoilers**
I mentioned before how complex the book is and with both its main plot and then several sub-plots it must have been a nightmare to decide how to transfer it to the big screen. You've got the main theme with the multi-million dollar lawsuit against the huge medical insurance corporation. Then you've got Rudy's own love story of trying to encourage the beautiful Kelly Riker played by Claire Danes, to file for divorce against her violent husband. Then you've got the eccentric Miss Birdie, Rudy's landlady who is trying to play her family off one another for the benefits of her will. And there's even a couple more sub-plots aside.
One of the best features of the film is the almost muted way some of the supporting characters play out their minor roles. Danny Glover is great as the fatherly Judge Kipler, Mary Kay Place inspires wonderful sympathy as the grieving mother of Donny Ray Black. Jon Voight is delightfully despicable in his role as arrogant defending lawyer Leo Drummond, but maybe stealing the show from all of these is Red West as Buddy Black, the grief stricken father who is going through a mental breakdown. He has two words in the whole film and yet the tenderness in which he plays his role will have the tears flooding.
I'll say again that it's not as good as the book, but in its own right it is a fabulously good film.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
I have just finished watching this film for the second time. It is a classic. Matt Damon plays the role of Rudy Baylor well, with that inexperience of a new lawyer and his nerves. Danny Devito backs him up brilliantly.
The plot, involves a newly qualified lawyer going up against a big insurance company, over their failure to pay out on a policy. There is a subplot - sort of a love interest for Rudy. She is married to a wifebeater, who teases Rudy at first.
Anyway, when the first judge dies(dean stockwell) a new judge takes over the case played by Danny Glover. It has to be one of his best performances. He sort of sides with Rudy but plays fair.
Then Rudy has to learn to stand on his feet, and beat his nerves. As the film prgresses he begins to gain his confidence.
So as not to give the ending away. all i say is this film was put together very well and it may have you in tears by the end of it.
The plot, involves a newly qualified lawyer going up against a big insurance company, over their failure to pay out on a policy. There is a subplot - sort of a love interest for Rudy. She is married to a wifebeater, who teases Rudy at first.
Anyway, when the first judge dies(dean stockwell) a new judge takes over the case played by Danny Glover. It has to be one of his best performances. He sort of sides with Rudy but plays fair.
Then Rudy has to learn to stand on his feet, and beat his nerves. As the film prgresses he begins to gain his confidence.
So as not to give the ending away. all i say is this film was put together very well and it may have you in tears by the end of it.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
One more legal thriller, you will say. Yes and no. Yes, because it is a thriller in the courtroom with a judge and lawyers and cases, victims and culprits, a jury and all of it. But it is more than that. It is the dilemma of a young lawyer who is confronted to an impossible choice: he is getting involved with his clients, emotionally involved and that is not good. You can't be the lawyer of the woman you love. You can't be the lawyer of a young man who is dying of leukemia and for whom you feel too much compassion. But that problem is secondary in that film, though it explains the end, the very final scene. This film is essential because it deals with three cases that are absolutely typical in our society. The first case is an old woman who has an important inheritance and she does not want to give it to her own son and his wife because they hate her and they only want her money. That's about what we do with our senior citizens, and what they do with themselves if they still have that much control of their future. Then let the lawyer write the will. Then you have a young married woman who is systematically beaten up by her husband and she does not dare to get a divorce because she is afraid. Then the lawyer is the only recourse to convince her she has to put an end to that situation. Then there is the central case, that of the young man dying of leukemia because his insurance company denied the claim. In that case, and that film is not quite young, we have all the arguments we have been able to hear against any kind of public management of health insurance coverage. That case was representative of the debate that had been going on for decades, since the war, since the new bill of rights of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944. Public health is a national asset and the nation through its representatives is entitled to manage it for everyone to have access to the best health coverage possible. Along that line the film is extremely emotional, even passionate and the arguments are no longer important when you are dealing with the pictures of a dying young man, of a beaten young woman, of an old hated woman. But the film is effective and calls for a response from the audience. It is that direct address to the audience's feelings and emotions, other than fear, fright and dread, or horror, terror and phobia, or violence, brutality and fury, that make the film interesting and probably lasting.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID
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chris301
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SUPER QUICK SERVICE
Just what i was looking , great price , quick service ,delivered in excellent condition
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