Another average Grisham adaptation. (John Grisham's The Rainmaker (DVD))

Member Name: Reuben Milner

Product:	John Grisham's The Rainmaker (DVD)
Date:	22/03/01 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great cast.

Disadvantages: Uninteresting.

The sixth adaptation of a John Grisham legal novel, The Rainmaker involves young idealistic attorney Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) who attempts to expose a hugh insurance company who have refused to pay the claim of young leukemia sufferer, Donny Ray Black. Also on Rudy's mind is the will of an old woman and a love interest (Claire Danes) who is being viciously beaten by her husband.
Francis Ford Coppola's attempt at a Grisham coutroom drama comes across much like every other (The Firm, The pelican Brief, A Time to Kill) - interesting up to a degree but never more than that. The difference and most interesting thing about this film is that it doesn't involve a massive murder case like Grisham's other novels. Instead it concentrates on something different allowing the film to focus on individual characters. To an extent this works well because there is a great cast involved with this film - as well as those already mentioned, there's Danny De Vito, Jon Voight, Danny Glover and best of all Mickey Rourke, who steals the show as the crooked boss on the run from a corruption scandal.
The film isn't helped by an unnecesarry voive-over which is meant to help us identify with the thoughts of the lead character but instead is simply annoying and reeks of pretentiousness.
Overall, the movie is predictable from the start and isn't at all that interesting. Of course it is watchable and all those with an interest in the law it will satisfy, but for anyone else I would recommend the courtroom scenes in Oliver Stone's JFK.

Summary: