Film Review: The Firm (1993)

When something looks too good to be true, it usually isn’t. This is the lesson learned by the protagonist of The Firm, 1993 legal thriller produced and directed by Sydney Pollack.

The film is based on the best-selling novel by John Grisham. The plot begins at Harvard Law School where the protagonist Mitch McDeere (played by Tom Cruise) is just about to graduate and, as such, becomes highly sought talent for various highly respected law firms all over America that want to recruit him. In the end he opts Bendini, Lambert & Locke, relatively unknown law firm from Memphis, Tennessee which seduced him with large salary, paying of his student loans, Mercedes and other generous perks. After graduation he moves to Memphis with his wife Abby (played by Jeanne Tripplehorn), a schoolteacher that doesn’t share much of his enthusiasm, not liking firm’s corporate culture and tendency to get involved into employee’s private lives. As Mitch prepares for Tennessee bar exam with the help of mentors like Avery Tolar (played by Gene Hackman) who would become his friends, he discovers that many firm’s clients are involved in tax evasion and similar shady business and that some of his colleagues have met premature demise in mysterious circumstances. Some of his suspicions are proven correct when he is approached by FBI agents led by Wayne Tarrance (played by Ed Harris), who explains that the firm is actually a front for Chicago mafia family. Mitch was asked to deliver confidential documental in exchange for immunity and partaking in witness protection program; if he doesn’t agree, he would be prosecuted together with colleagues. Mitch also knows that if he agrees that he would breech attorney-client privilege and lose ability to practise law ever again. His impossible dilemma is complicated by intimidation by firm’s security chief Bill DeVasher (played by Wilford Brimley) and his own brother Ray (played by David Strathairn) serving prison sentence for manslaughter.

The Firm was massive success at the box office, which can be partially explained with Tom Cruise, a star at the zenith of his popularity, being prominently featured at the poster. But it can be also explained by the popularity of John Grisham, novelist who shared many traits of Bill Clinton, recently elected US President who had managed to seduce large swaths of population. Both men were Southerners, had liberal views yet managed to present themselves as regular persons and champions of common man. Grisham novels, in which protagonists happened to be Davids using their knowledge of law and ingenuity in order to defeat Goliath embodied in organised crime, oppressive government or ruthless corporation, had populist quality that looked like an ingredient of winning formula for Hollywood. In the case of The Firm, the adaptation was taken by Sydney Pollack, film maker with many past successes, although most of them being in 1970s. He turned out to be not the best choice for this project; while the incredibly large budget in the film is visible, his style of direction left too much to be desired. Tempo is too slow, plot is, especially in the beginning, too complicated and The Firm looks too bloated and overlong. Piano music score by Dave Grusin (despite later being nominated for Oscar) is often irritating and used at the wrong segments. Thankfully, script by David Rabe, Robert Towne and David Rayfiel deviates from the source material in a way that offers very convenient, ingenious and simple way for protagonist to solve his dilemma, allowing film to end in satisfactory manner.

Tom Cruise in main role delivers the goods, working very hard in portraying young man torn between idealism, greed and fear. Gene Hackman is also good in the role of his mentor who is supposed to be villain, but gradually discovers some of his past idealism in Mitch. On the other hand, Jeanne Tripplehorn is wasted in the role of Mitch’s wife, because she lacks chemistry with Cruise and her erotic potentials, used with such skill by Paul Verhoeven in Basic Instinct, are nowhere to be seen due to Pollack being timid, completely in line in neo-Puritan sentiments of 1990s mainstream Hollywood. The rest of cast, many of which appear in smaller roles, is much better, and it is pity that character of flamboyant private investigator played by Gary Busey doesn’t appear more, just like his secretary played by Holly Hunter (who was actually nominated for Oscar for Best Supporting Actress). The Firm represented the very first and commercially most successful of all adaptations of Grisham’s work and together with The Pelican Brief later in the year established Grisham’s status of Hollywood’s golden goose. Two decades later film received a sequel in the form of short-lived television series starring Josh Lucas as Mitch McDeere.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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