Film Forum

U.S., 1997
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Based on the John Grisham novel
Starring Matt Damon, Claire Danes, Jon Voight, Danny DeVito, Mary Kay Place, Teresa Wright, Dean Stockwell
Approx. 135 min.

“We’re back in ingénue Southern lawyer territory, following law school grad Rudy Baylor (Damon) through his inaugural case to a mercurial triumph against the odds. So far, so insipid; thankfully, the story is less the usual addled potboiler than a diary of civil litigation—centring on Rudy’s pursuit of a giant insurance company accused of stalling on health claims arising from policies marketed to the poor and unrepresented, such as his client Donny Ray Black (Whitworth). Rudy describes the dilemma of his calling in voice-over, musing over ideals and corruptions, compromises and lawyer jokes. His pilgrim’s progress leads us through an entertaining gallery of lawyerly archetypes. There’s the cynic, Rudy’s long sold-out adversary Leo F. Drummond (Voight); the corrupt, his low-life employer Bruiser Stone (Rourke); and the merely ignoble, his ‘paralawyer’ assistant Deck Schifflet (DeVito). There’s a wider perspective on the legal action, too, counterpointing Rudy’s ‘rainmaking’ lawsuit with both a damp squib of another case, and a subplot involving Danes’ abused wife which suggests the limitations of the law.” – Time Out

Presented with support from The Ada Katz Fund for Literature in Film

Reviews

“Infused with enough humor, character, honest emotion, and storytelling style to make it one of the year’s most entertaining movies.”
 – Jack Matthews, Los Angeles Times