Review of The Client (1994) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

This is a crime drama film, which features themes including journalism, confessions and pursuit. It is a dialogue heavy film - there isn't too much in the way of action, so if your looking for special effects and the like then you'll probably be disappointed. The film features a number of people with relatively strong southern American accents, so you may or may not find it slightly difficult to follow all the dialogue due to this.

I found myself feeling quite sorry for Mark Sway, for the awkward situation he was in. I thought most of the characters were quite interesting - I liked that he had a female lawyer and that she was prepared to take on the big boys, the system. There are a number of big names present in the cast, with the lawyer Reggie Love being played by Susan Sarandon, Roy Foltrigg, the district attorney, played by Tommy Lee Jones and Anthony LaPaglia playing Barry Muldano. I often think of Susan Sarandon as being quite a sassy, assertive type, which she is in this film, although (if anything) a bit quieter than she is in some other roles. I also thought that Tommy Lee Jones did well in being the big shot lawyer type. Also, Anthony Edwards (known for playing a Dr in ER) plays Clint Von Hooser and the main character, the young boy Mark Sway, is played by Brad Renfro. I believe this was the most successful film Brad appeared in and he has since sadly died of a drug overdose in 2008. His acting seemed very good, playing a scared yet seemingly angry and frustrated young boy.

Content wise, this film contains a scene of implied strong violence, with a gunshot heard but no visual shown. There is a short scene showing a corpse which could be upsetting and small injuries depicted but otherwise little in the way of violence. There are some relatively mild profanities uttered and a few scenes with a strong sense of threat, which could potentially upset or frighten young viewers. The film has been given a 15 rating due to this, although I thought that was perhaps a little strong, a 12 rating may be more applicable due to the lack of strong violence shown for much time but I suppose it wouldn't interest people much below the age of 15 regardless. This is very much a film for those who are keen on interesting plots and character based dramas.

The film does look somewhat dated - it was released in 1994, so thats hardly surprising but its an interesting story for the most part. One or two plot aspects I found myself questioning and there are some cliches (sentimentality being one) but for the most part I enjoyed it and found it quite watchable, with some good performance from Renfro, Sarandon and Jones. Its, on a few levels, about fighting the system but I think thats to be commended really. Its based on a John Grisham novel, one of many film adaptations based on his work. From what I know, his books are mainly set in court rooms, while this one featured surprisingly few courtroom based scenes, although, of course, the legal system is very much the main setting of the film.

Yes I'd recommend this film, as a plot/character driven drama. It does have some cheesy cliche type aspects but its also surprisingly watchable and I enjoyed it for the most part, so I'd recommend it on that basis.