Wuchak RELEASED IN 1993 and directed by Sydney Pollack based on John Grisham's novel, "The Firm" is a crime drama/thriller starring Tom Cruise as a top Harvard grad lawyer who desperately wants to leave behind his working-class origins and takes a high-paying job at a firm in Memphis. He and his wife (Jeanne Tripplehorn) are ecstatic in their affluent new world until clues mount up that the firm has a sinister side. Gene Hackman plays his mentor at the firm while Ed Harris appears as an FBI agent. Holly Hunter, Hal Holbrook, David Strathairn and Gary Busey are also on hand.This has long been one of my favorites from this genre. You really feel for McDeere (Cruise) & his wife as their utopia morphs into an inescapable hell. In the Washington DC scene you grasp how limited their choices are as they're caught in a crossfire between the Mob and the FBI. McDeere must use his wits, his knowledge and "golden connections" for them to get out unscathed, if possible. I always favored the piano score by Dave Grusin, which some have described as "bouncy." While you could call it that, it has different tones depending on the sequence. For instance, during the closing city chase it's driving and portentous. There's also a melancholic component when suitable. The positive side of the piano score is that it makes the film timeless. Consider quality movies from that general era which were horribly dated by conventional scores, like "No Way Out" (1987). THE FILM RUNS 2 hour, 34 minutes and was shot in Memphis, Tennessee; West Memphis, Arkansas; Cayman Islands; Washington DC; Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts. GRADE: A/A-

jmillerdp Tom Cruise's character is officially the dumbest lawyer who's ever lived! He doesn't ask a question when a supposedly small Memphis law firm offers him far more than a Wall Street firm. Really? And, it's all downhill from there in John Grisham's impossibly laughable pulp thriller.Grisham has always turned out potboilers, melodramatic legal tales that strain credulity. But this, his first, is even more impossible to believe than most!The film is reasonably made. But, a competently made film that has a truly Loony Tunes blueprint is just that. And, the believability just gets more and more strained as it goes.Dave Grusin attempts a one-instrument-only film score with performing the whole thing with only a piano. It's an admirable attempt, but it just doesn't work. Bernard Hermann created an all-string film score for "Psycho," but that included the full string section: violins, cellos, bass violins, etc.This movie is such a joke! Embarrassing.** (2 Out of 10 Stars)

Tommy Prado I give it a three for how many times I felt ANY kind of suspense as I seem to remember the book was a very exciting read...giving this a watch as I couldn't find anything else and since I enjoyed the book..((sound familiar??))...first of all as much as I think Tom Cruise is about as one dimensional an actor for that time it probably was a good choice since he was certainly bankable in the early 90's..however he truly shows no acting charisma in this... shows all the same facial and hand expressions that you will see gone into overdrive by Jerry MacGuire which got him to major ham status... The movie is too plodding and edited with so many inconsequential scenes it just sucks the life out of the suspense...the best actors in the film are actually the supporting cast from Holly Hunter to Ed Harris..even the great and understated Steven Hill gives you more to think about than three quarters of this movie as Cruise and Tripplehorne give us NOTHING to really care about with mopey facial expressions and Cruise's trademark "hold on I am thinking while staring the other direction and pointing my fingers and then standing with a perplexed look to mug for the cam in a manner WE KNOW somethings about to go down"...and then there is the score....where do I begin...the jazzy piano added NOTHING to the supposed suspense the book has created..I firmly expected a dance number to come out of nowhere in the middle of this....totally inappropriate music for this....Gene Hackman is...is......GENE HACKMAN....nuff said......the ending is just ridiculous anti-climatic and makes you think "are you SERIOUS?....to sum this up the best way possible..my favorite scene in the whole movie involved Gary Busey...chew on that for a second or three....LOL

premnathbharti This film is based on a best-selling novel by John Grisham under the same name. John Grisham is well known writer for his thrilling novels. The story revolves around a young and ambitious lawyer, Mitch who has just passed law school and is looking for a job in a law firm. As he is one of the brightest students of the batch, he gets plenty of offers from the country's leading law firms, but the law firm which he chooses to work in, was going to change his life forever.He got hired in small law firm in Memphis, offering him an unexpectedly large salary, a BMW, a sign-on bonus, use of corporate jet, 10 years contract and a lifestyle he ever dreamed for him and Abby, his wife. They were unaware of the facts about the firm and everything seems perfect to Mitch as all of these he ever wanted was there. {SPOILER ALERT} But after some days Mitch realized that some conspiracy is going on in the firm and soon he found out that Firm is linked with the a Mafia family called "Moroltos", and soon FBI came after Mitch to reveal the facts about firm. Now he had to run from both FBI and firm. Overall plot is good and the focus is mainly on Mitch and the firm. In the movie, firm searches for the candidate who are married, young and from poor background, who can be disillusioned with the money. Tom's acting is appreciable and story is changed a little bit from that of novel to create better climax. In my opinion the story of film is not better than the original screen play of the novel but overall film is perfect for the viewers who like mystery, drama with thriller.