Review of The Firm (1993) by Jay L — 03 Mar 2013

"Power can be murder to resist..".

John Grisham's best-selling novel by the same name comes to extraordinary life on the big. screen, and its a commandingly intense and cerebral endeaver. I'm a huge fan of John Grisham novels, but this is one of my favorite books, and the transition from The pages of the book to the big screen is a very crafty and smooth one. Director Sydney Pollack's (Cold Mountain, Changing Lanes, The Talented Mr. Ripley) best work in my opinion, and that's saying a lot given his very impressive and lengthy resume and career. John Grisham is one of my very favorite authors, and Joel Schumaker among others have adapted his books into feature length films, The Firm is one of my personal favorites. An absorbing, gripping, stylish, visceral drama that packs an enormous amount of extreme tension and heart racing suspense. It's my personal guarantee that you will be absorbed into cyclonic cinematic psychosis from the first scene. The Firm is the real deal, a commanding, cerebral, dramatic, tense, powerful, addicting, deceptive and intense drama that's solid and captivating both inside and out. The pages of the book come to life with amazing precision, accuracy and detail due in large part to the very disciplined and profoundly detailed Directorial style of Sydney Pollack, I mean this guy makes some wickedly tense movies. Pure legal thriller through and through, and it's one of the best out there. Tom Cruise is great, I can only take the man in doses, but he was effective in a great performance. Gene Hackman is astounding, there's just nothing that this legendary talent can't live up to. Jeanne Triplehorn is fantastic as well. Rounding out the supporting cast, The Firm features excellent roles from Ed Harris, Hal Holbrook and Terry Kinney.