This movie was the movie that finally drove the fact home to me that Tom Cruise was a good actor and pushed him to the front of the line. The casting was really really great and the plot was first rate. Cruise is a fresh out of college law student named Mitch with a pretty new wife who is dreaming of becoming a successful and big name lawyer. So as any other graduate he is sending out resumes and getting offers from different firms. But one firm from Memphis, Tennessee gives him an offer he can't refuse. It seems like a small homegrown firm that is very wealthy and prosperous and prides itself on being the best. But this isn't any ordinary law firm. It's a "Family" with a history of partners having premature deaths and now Mitch is part of it. And he can't get out. Not alive anyways. So Mitch has to find a way out without joining the list of expired former associates. Gene Hackman in this is incredibly, stunningly, unbelievably great. His character quickly becomes Cruise's mentor. He is an unhappy, alcoholic, womanizing ambulance chaser (albeit an highly powerful and prosperous one) who also cannot escape either and is the linchpin in the unfolding drama that Cruise and Tripplehorn find themselves square in the middle of. Hackman is the one you should despise and dislike right from the beginning but you can't even if you try very hard because he is a likable person and you know he is in serious trouble which makes you emphasize with him right from the get go. My favorite Grisham book adaptation it made him a household name to this very day. Also features appearances by Paul Sorvino, Gary Busey, and Holly Hunter.
Review of The Firm
