Directed by: Sydney Pollack
Starring: Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Wilford Brimley, David Strathairn, Holly Hunter, Gary Busey, Terry Kinney, Hal Holbrook, Steven Hill
The film version of The Firm replaces John Grisham's novel's cynicism with idealism and a moral center in Mitch McDeere (Cruise), a Harvard law graduate from a poor background who is the ideal recruit for the Memphis law firm of Bendini, Lambert, and Locke. Why is he ideal? Because after being pitched with a new home, a big starting salary, flashy car, and some downhome folksiness, Mitch accepts the job even though he could have his pick of firms in New York. He is hungry for the life he never had growing up. Major mistake. Mitch soon realizes his firm isn't what it seems, and he is caught in a web involving the firm and the FBI which will take some ingenuity to free himself from.
The Firm is a legal thriller that hums along. Despite the moving parts, it mostly makes sense, but even Mitch's plan to outwit the firm and the FBI leaves an awful lot to chance. No matter. We want Mitch to succeed in his plans and for the firm to go down in flames. The firm, as we learn, is a money laundering operation for the mob and kills associates who want to leave or spill the beans. With the exception of Mitch's mentor Avery Tolar (Hackman), the firm consists of amoral lawyers who protect their interests by any means necessary. Hackman effectively plays a conflicted man who was once a fresh young idealist like Mitch, until the firm got a hold of him and sucked out nearly all of his humanity. But because Avery is played by Gene Hackman, we know he has a soft spot in his heart for Mitch and especially for Mitch's schoolteacher wife Abby (Tripplehorn), who suspects something is amiss in the firm long before Mitch does.
The FBI, led by Agent Wayne Terrance (Harris), doesn't provide a comfortable alternative to working at Bendini, Lambert, and Locke. They want Mitch to copy files, betray client secrets, and subject himself to life in the witness protection program sans a license to practice law. Mitch, we learn, has some secrets of his own including a brother in jail serving time for manslaughter he didn't tell the firm about during his job interview. Through his brother, Mitch hooks up with a chatty private eye (Busey), who notes, "the lawyers at your firm sure do seem accident prone," But the private eye meets a messy fate, and his secretary/lover Tammy (Hunter) aids Mitch in his plan.
How precisely Mitch worms his way out of his predicament I will leave for you to witness, but don't blink or you may miss something. The actors clearly are enjoying themselves, anchored by a sympathetic Cruise. Director Pollack keeps the pace taut even for a nearly two-and-a-half-hour movie, with the stakes clearly spelled out. It would be difficult not to note the simple, yet effective Dave Grusin piano-based score, which underlines the thriller aspects nicely while suggesting that this is all fun to watch unfold.
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