The Rainmaker 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1998 Timothy Voon
1 :-) for the miracle worker
So here I am faced with the dilemma of reviewing another John Grisham movie. I ask myself, shall I be fair or should I trash it? After all this is number umpteen in a long line of successful Grisham movies, and the one most likely to be torn apart by critics hungry for blood. Let's be fair.
This is not by any means the most engrossing court room drama to date, but it is certainly one of the more amusing attempts to lighten the heavy weight of legal discourse. Thanks to Danny Devito and his funny man antics we have achieved the latter to the end. Frances Ford Cappola seems an unusual choice for directing such an unconventional mixture of drama and comedy, and remarkably this movie isn't clouded by his usual heavy directional undertones. When the movie finishes, you'll be wandering to yourself ‘My God, Frances Ford Cappola directed this ???'.
For better or worse, Coppola has decided to sway away from using a prime grade star by choosing a relative unknown such as Matt Damon, to play the lead. This I personally believe was a mistake. People are always asking about who the male and female leads of a movie are, and when you can only provide a …. Ummmmh….. in response to their question, you will likely get an ….Ohhhh….. from them, before they brush the movie into their memory – that's unless you are a die hard Grisham fan. Matt Damon is every bit good quality for money as the young lawyer who makes a miracle happen in court, but someone like Ethan Hawke may have been better material.
There is however a strong cast of supporting actors and actresses. Jon Voight is delightfully crooked as the powerful lawyer providing defence for the fraudulent health insurance business. Devito I have already mentioned, and other well knowns like Danny Glover, Roy Scheider and Mickey Rourke throw in fine performances. The most unbelievable and sadly miscast is Clare Danes in the role of a battered wife who also provides a love interest for the young Matt Damon. Not only are the bandages hanging off her face in the most pathetic manner, but the flimsy method of application with a stuck band-aid here and there is ludicrous. This is sadly the fault of a misinformed make-up artist with no first aid experience.
Beside this, there is only one point of contention in this movie that I have to mention. When the battered wife (Danes) asks the young lawyer (Damon) for the baseball bat and then closes the door behind her before beating her husband's brains out ……. sad to say this can no longer be considered ‘The Battered Wife Syndrome' or ‘Manslaughter' – the correct term would be intent to kill and cannot be justified by the fact the abusive husband deserved to die. Once the husband is dead it is implied that the lawyer and housewife get together. This surprised me considering that all John Grisham movies carry such an undeniable sense of right and wrong, but now such leeway is given. Besides this minor quirk, the audience is drawn into caring about what happens to the characters, and you will end up with another cathartic experience of courtroom melodramatics to help soothe your society ill laden conscience.
Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
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