THE CLIENT
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1995 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
THE CLIENT is the fourth of John Grisham's five novels. I read the first four on vacation in Hawaii last year. I saw THE FIRM, awarded it ** 1/2, and gave it a mild thumbs up. I avoided THE PELICAN BRIEF because it got such awful reviews. They have not made movies of the first or fifth books yet. I found that liked the movie, THE CLIENT, for some excellent acting and for the great Grisham plot.
Repeating his THE FUGITIVE type of role, Tommy Lee Jones plays the quintessential prosecutor who would do anything to get the bad guys in jail. Here Jones plays a U.S. Attorney who wants his next job to be that of Governor of Louisiana, hence he wants good press coverage. A young boy (Brad Renfro) may have overheard some information that Jones and the mob both want. He hires a tough but very inexperienced lawyer played by Susan Sarandon to defend his rights and to protect him from both sides. This is the basic plot set up. There are a lot of twists and turns after that - some predictable, some not.
Almost every word Jones utters is terrific. The script is good, but his delivery is what makes it. I love the way he delivers the lines: "I want that boy in court, manana! You hear what I'm say'n?" Almost as good is Sarandon. She plays a complex character that is both tough and vulnerable.
Renfro plays the archetypal burnt out teenager. His performance was acceptable at best. I think they should have got a stronger actor or at least the director, Joel Schumacher, should have given him more guidance. Renfro was not convincing enough for me. Then again, maybe it was the way Grisham wrote the character that I have problems with. There were numerous minor characters of merit. The judge (Ossie Davis) was the best of the small performances.
THE CLIENT runs 1:57. It is correctly rated PG-13 for a little violence and a modest amount of profanity. (It would be XXX rated for smoking. Almost everyone smoked, and they smoked a lot. Cigarettes were even used in evidence. NONE of the smoking was necessary.) I think kids over 12 will enjoy the show. I recommend it and award it ***.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEWED WRITTEN ON: July 27, 1994
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews