LAWYERS ON FILM

Lawyers on film

The good Doctor K on wittertainment reviewing The Lincoln Lawyer (about 18 months ago) declared that he finds John Grisham "incredibly dull". However, he also admitted that he has never read any of his books; what he meant was that he finds the movie adaptations of Grisham books to be dull. Come on Mark, you can do better than that.

Now I suspect that Mark Kermode might feel that John Grisham books are just airport novels and therefore not very good. I think that's unfair. I doubt that Grisham will ever win the Mann Booker Prize, but his works are usually very entertaining with well written characters and genuine atmosphere. They aren't all brilliant (The Broker is very dull and The Associate needs a third act), but many of them are cracking reads. Mark is right on one score though - the movies aren't great.

The Firm (A weak * * *)The first adaptation of a John Grisham book. The book is great, all about an ambitious young lawyer tempted by the dark side when he discovers that the firm he has just joined is a Mafia front. It struck a chord with me when I first read it, perhaps in part because I was a law student looking for a job in a law firm at the time. The movie, however, sucks. Tom Cruise is well-cast, but Sydney Pollack was at best a lacklustre director and junks most of the final third of the book, squeezing it into 15 minutes of tedious action.

The Pelican Brief (**) Grisham's third novel is fairly average. So is the movie.

The Client (**) Joel Schumacher's first Grisham adaptation. It's a dull movie, based on a dull book about a young boy who witnesses the death of a mafioso and who may or my not have been told a vital secret that will help nail a wiseguy. Not one of Grisham's best books, nor is it one of Schumacher's best movies. Spawned a short-lived TV series.

A Time To Kill (* * * *) Schumacher's second try at Grisham. This is much better, starring Matthew McConnaughey as a small town southern lawyer who has to defend a black man, Samuel L Jackson, who has murdered the man who raped his young daughter. It's a great book, incredibly atmospheric with echoes of To Kill A Mocking Bird. The movie is not quite that good, but it's not at all bad. The one truly good Grisham movie.

The Chamber (* *) The second Gene Hackman Grisham movie (he was also in The Firm). The book is a very good thriller about a young lawyer who wants to act for his grandfather who's on Death Row for a racist murder during the sixties. The movie is dire, a totally squandered opportunity. Eye-wateringly dull.

The Rainmaker (* *) The book is very good, about a a young jobless lawyer who finds himself with a single client, a terminally ill man refused health cover by a greedy and unscrupulous insurance company. It's thoroughly enjoyable. The movie was directed by Fancis Coppolla, and starred Matt Damon, Danny De Vito, Danny Glover (as a judge - Hollywood judges are always black these days) and Roy Scheider. It's not very good. Coppolla has not directed anything good since Apocalypse Now.

The Runaway Jury (* * *) One of Grisham's more middling efforts. A fairly middling movie too.

Christmas with the Kranks (based on Grisham's Skipping Christmas) (* *)This book is one of Grisham's attempts to broaden his range by writing something that isn't a legal thriller. The book is a reasonably enjoyable but quite lightweight tale of a man who decides not to celebrate Christmas. The movie is formulaic Hollywood stuff starring Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd (who I can only assume needed the money). It's bearable, but only if there's nothing else on TV that night.

The Gingerbread Man - I haven't seen more than the first 20 minutes of this as my wife got bored and made me turn it off. It's an original work, based on a screenplay by John Grisham and not a book. IMDb says that Grisham objected to swear words added by director Robert Altman and demanded that his name be taken off it. It's unfair to express view on a movie I haven't seen, but it didn't look great.

So, Mark, try reading The Firm, A Time To Kill, The Chamber and the Rainmaker. Don't let the movie versions put you off. You might also want to try reading some of Grisham's other better books which have not been adapted into movies:

The Street Lawyer
The Testament
A Painted House
The Summons
King of Torts
The Last Juror
The Confession