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Too much of everything

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The Firm is a top notch legal thriller from Sydney Pollack based on the John Grisham bestseller. Tom Cruise- at the height of his wave- plays young hot shot recently graduated Mitch Mcdeere. He is a brilliant mind and all the top firms want him and he decides to go for Memphis based small firm. He is mentored by a cunning Gene Hackman as he comes to understand that this small firm has a sinister underbelly. Featuring great performances and a breezy plot The Firm was a big success then and is still a good film today.

RELEASED IN 1993 and directed by Sydney Pollack based on John Grisham's novel, "The Firm" is a crime drama/thriller starring Tom Cruise as a top Harvard grad lawyer who desperately wants to leave behind his working-class origins and takes a high-paying job at a firm in Memphis. He and his wife (Jeanne Tripplehorn) are ecstatic in their affluent new world until clues mount up that the firm has a sinister side. Gene Hackman plays his mentor at the firm while Ed Harris appears as an FBI agent. Holly Hunter, Hal Holbrook, David Strathairn and Gary Busey are also on hand.This has long been one of my favorites from this genre. You really feel for McDeere (Cruise) & his wife as their utopia morphs into an inescapable hell. In the Washington DC scene you grasp how limited their choices are as they're caught in a crossfire between the Mob and the FBI. McDeere must use his wits, his knowledge and "golden connections" for them to get out unscathed, if possible. I always favored the piano score by Dave Grusin, which some have described as "bouncy." While you could call it that, it has different tones depending on the sequence. For instance, during the closing city chase it's driving and portentous. There's also a melancholic component when suitable. The positive side of the piano score is that it makes the film timeless. Consider quality movies from that general era which were horribly dated by conventional scores, like "No Way Out" (1987). THE FILM RUNS 2 hour, 34 minutes and was shot in Memphis, Tennessee; West Memphis, Arkansas; Cayman Islands; Washington DC; Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts. GRADE: A/A-

The Firm is a major disappointment, lacking the drama and characters that are such a strong part of the book. From the start, we get little appreciation of the characters, particularly Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise), the Harvard trained lawyer from the wrong side of the tracks who hopes to live his version of the American Dream. He joins a law firm in Memphis with an offer that is quite literally too good to be true. When he realizes he is in a nest of vipers, he finds himself in a no win situation between the law firm and the FBI, which has been trying to bring the firm to justice. The soft jazzy music throughout this "thriller" is an constant irritant that only lengthens the boredom of this tiresome piece of film-making. I was misled by the page turner of a book by John Grisham that gave readers so much entertainment back in the early 1990's. Tom Cruise is too much the movie celebrity to fit the role of Mitch McDeere. Gene Hackman has a key role as his mentor but doesn't fit the bill either. To me he is always Popeye Doyle from the French Connection movies. I did find Wilford Brimley and Ed Harris, on opposite sides of the organized crime machine vs. the law, to be the most convincing, although their performances were lost in this forgettable movie. By all means, read the book but take a pass on the movie.

This film is based on a best-selling novel by John Grisham under the same name. John Grisham is well known writer for his thrilling novels. The story revolves around a young and ambitious lawyer, Mitch who has just passed law school and is looking for a job in a law firm. As he is one of the brightest students of the batch, he gets plenty of offers from the country's leading law firms, but the law firm which he chooses to work in, was going to change his life forever.He got hired in small law firm in Memphis, offering him an unexpectedly large salary, a BMW, a sign-on bonus, use of corporate jet, 10 years contract and a lifestyle he ever dreamed for him and Abby, his wife. They were unaware of the facts about the firm and everything seems perfect to Mitch as all of these he ever wanted was there. {SPOILER ALERT} But after some days Mitch realized that some conspiracy is going on in the firm and soon he found out that Firm is linked with the a Mafia family called "Moroltos", and soon FBI came after Mitch to reveal the facts about firm. Now he had to run from both FBI and firm. Overall plot is good and the focus is mainly on Mitch and the firm. In the movie, firm searches for the candidate who are married, young and from poor background, who can be disillusioned with the money. Tom's acting is appreciable and story is changed a little bit from that of novel to create better climax. In my opinion the story of film is not better than the original screen play of the novel but overall film is perfect for the viewers who like mystery, drama with thriller.