FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.
Coppola does Grisham justice
Treatment of courtroom drama offers fresh and original charactersThe Rainmaker
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Starring Danny DeVito, Matt Damon, Jon Voight and Claire Danes
Check listingsThe Rainmaker is an extremely polished and engaging courtroom drama about the ambivalence of the law and the redemption of lawyers.
Rudy Baylor (newcomer Matt Damon) steps out of law school into the sleazy employ of a Memphis lawyer named Bruiser (Mickey Rourke, wearing familiar polyester, unaccustomed polysyllabics and a goatee). Rudy is taught the niceties of ambulance chasing by Deck Shifflet (Danny DeVito), a towering model of compromise.
When the boss flees a corruption rap, Rudy and Deck fight for a poor family's insurance claim. Their son dies of leukemia for want of adequate treatment. The insurance company is defended by an army of expensive slicks, headed by the smooth Jon Voight.
The film defines the blurring line between right and wrong in the legal profession. Though Bruiser balances his law practice with a sideline in bars and strippers, and keeps a tank full of emblematic sharks, he does provide legal service to the helpless underclass. Though his legal practice is at best suspect, his precedent in admitting stolen evidence pays off for our hero.
DeVito's born loser (six-time flunker of the bar exam) also shows how stratagems and duplicities can serve a higher purpose.
The film's larger theme deals with the need for a medical and justice system that serves the people more than big business. As a pathetic last resort, the Voight character threatens the jury with a state medical insurance. Why, down in the US of Eh? that smacks almost of socialism, if not of Canadianism or even - shudder - liberalism.
Two subplots flesh out the hero's character. He befriends an elderly woman (the resurrected Theresa Wright) alienated from her greedy children, and a badly abused young wife (Claire Danes), who finally kills her husband. In both stories our hero uses questionable behavior to serve a higher justice.
Dean Stockwell and Danny Glover portray the same moral polarity on the bench that Voight and Damon do in the shark tank.
The film's conventional plot, tone and conclusion are brightened by its original inflections of character, humor and human interest.
The unknown Damon and the veterans Voight, DeVito and Glover are all compelling presences. Of particular interest is the incidental detailing. We hear the whispers exchanged between minor characters. The freshness of the lawyers' stratagems enlivens the hackneyed situation and the sentimental conclusion.
The film is based on a John Grisham novel, but its driving talent is director Francis Ford Coppola, who returns to the character-driven cinema of The Conversation and The Rain People (no relation). This is not a major Coppola, but a very fine potboiler. For such relief, much thanks.
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