The Green Mile

Starring: Tom Hanks, David Morse, Michael Clarke Duncan, James Cromwell

If you've got three hours or so to kill, "The Green Mile" is pretty good entertainment. Frank Darabont, who wrote and directed, does a good job; he seems to have a feel for the material, and he handles the actors beautifully. He also has a good eye; the picture looks great, and completely authentic. I am not the first to point out that the movie is awfully long, way longer than it needs or ought to be, but despite this it is almost always absorbing. Hanks plays Paul Edgecomb, the head guard on death row (called the Green Mile because of the floor color) in a southern, depression era prison. Into his little world comes a new prisoner (the gigantic Duncan, also seen in the recent “The Whole Nine Yards”) who is condemned for murder, but who seems not to be the murdering type, and who has some unusual abilities, to boot. I am not giving too much away to say that he seems a bit saintly, which might give you an idea of where the picture is coming from. Hanks gives a fine, restrained performance. He is one of our most intelligent actors, and it shows through in every scene.

He doesn't miss a beat throughout the entire picture, and he modulates his voice perfectly, lending exactly the right tone of persuasion or threat to each line. David Morse, as Hanks' right-hand man, is terrific also; he has developed a really commanding screen presence, so different from the sensitive, vulnerable persona he displayed in television's "St. Elsewhere" that he seems to be a different actor entirely. You can argue about whether "The Green Mile" carries the whole martyr thing too far, but Darabont shows a real ability to shape individual scenes, and that is what saves the picture from being trite, or worse yet, boring. Most of the time we are really engaged by what is onscreen, even when it relies on some fairly hokey stuff (ie. a cute pet mouse, a vicious prison guard).

But Darabont isn't as good when it comes to linking sequences; all too often they end in blackout. (And I was particularly disheartened by the use of the tired framing sequence ploy. It adds twenty unnecessary minutes to the picture, and I do not think that the twist at the end is worth it.) The problem may be with the source material (full disclosure: I haven't read the novel), or the adaptation, but I also think it is no coincidence that Darabont is the only director of a Best Picture-nominated film this year who was not nominated as Best Director. "The Green Mile" is a decent, but not a great picture. It means well, it has its heart in the right place, and certain individual elements are very strong. But when you consider the effect of some of the more egregious sentimentality, as well as its undisciplined length, it adds up to less than the sum of its parts. (2/20/00)