Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Jon Voight, Mary Kay Place, Danny Glover, Virginia Madsen, Mickey Rourke, Claire Danes
It has been said that there are more law students in America now than there are working lawyers. That seems to be the case for Rudy Baylor (Damon), who graduated near the top of his class at tiny Memphis State and can only find work with a slick ambulance chaser named Bruiser Stone. Rudy's daily duties include camping out at the local hospital looking to sign up clients, one of which is a battered wife with whom he falls in love. Meanwhile, the feds are closing in on Stone for his dubious business practices, forcing Rudy to open his own office.
But these are mere subplots. The main focus of Rudy's energy is with a case in which a poor woman named Dot Black (Place) sues a large, wealthy insurance company that denied her son, Donnie Ray, medical care even though he is dying from leukemia. She bought an insurance policy from a door-to-door salesman, but the company's standard practice is to deny many, many more claims than it pays out on. One of those claims is for her son, who is now dying because the insurance company refused to pay for his treatment.
Courtroom dramas are inherently suspenseful and The Rainmaker's is no exception. What makes it better than most is its eye for human detail. Rudy is a smart, resourceful attorney who feels stuck in a morass of slime. He begins to understand why people tell lawyer jokes. He knows he has to play the game in order to win the case, but he's not thrilled with it or some of its players, especially lead defense attorney Leo Drummond (Voight). Drummond is a smooth-talking charmer who can't wait to try his case against the rookie Rudy. He figures with his client's limitless resources that he should be able to overpower the novice, but Rudy has a strong case and with help from his paralegal Deck Shifflett (DeVito), he is able to come up with damaging evidence.
Deck Shifflet is a ball of energy who flunked the bar exam six times, which doesn't seem to faze him. He wheels and deals and knows all of the angles that Rudy misses. It's a natural role for DeVito, who despite his diminutive size tends to overpower other actors with his energy. Deck's rules for his clients include, "Try to tell the truth." When the son eventually dies from his illness, the first words out of Deck's mouth are, "It's now a wrongful death case. Gazillions."
Director Coppola also focuses on other events, such as Rudy falling for a battered wife named Kelly (Danes) whose husband continues to abuse her. Rudy signs her up as a client, but soon becomes entangled in the domestic disputes and even is an accomplice when Kelly beats her husband to death with a baseball bat. Rudy also helps out the kindly old lady he rents a room from when her estranged children wish to get their hands on her money. These are satisfying scenes, but they thankfully don't distract from the main event.
The movie, released in 1997, seems even more timely today because of Obamacare and the controversy of health insurance. The son, Donnie Ray Black, died because his health insurance company wouldn't pay for necessary treatments which would've saved his life. It's amusing to hear Drummond in his closing arguments attempt to convince the jury that a large award for the plaintiff would lead to "Universal, government controlled health coverage." After what the insurance company did to Donnie Ray Black, does that sound like a bad thing?
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