The Firm

Starring: Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorne, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, David Straithairn, Gary Busey

All dressed up with no place to go. The more I think about this picture the less I like it. They pull out all the Hollywood stops for this big-budget recreation of the mega-selling Grisham novel. Unfortunately, that only serves to point up the painful thinness of the story. Pollack is undone by his own portentousness; he simply refuses to have any fun with this, which is the only way it might have succeeded. Cruise yaps and banters and looks earnest, in a part that he should have graduated from a long time ago. He's a much better actor than this film allows him to be. This film would win an Oscar for "best supporting cast" (and it is a great cast) but they have precious little to support. As one critic said: "a thriller that isn't very thrilling." Sadly, the only time the movie really has any juice is during its most conventional sequence: Cruise being chased by implacable killers. The big box office that this picture is doing only proves that once again the American public has been sold a bill of goods--tricked by a flashy paint job into thinking they are getting a Cadillac when the vehicle in question is actually a Trabant. Personally, I think this bodes very poorly for all the other movies currently being made from Grisham novels. Watch out. (7/7/93)