RELEASED IN 1993 and directed by Sydney Pollack based on John Grisham's novel, "The Firm" is a crime drama/thriller starring Tom Cruise as a top Harvard grad lawyer who desperately wants to leave behind his working-class origins and takes a high-paying job at a firm in Memphis. He and his wife (Jeanne Tripplehorn) are ecstatic in their affluent new world until clues mount up that the firm has a sinister side. Gene Hackman plays his mentor at the firm while Ed Harris appears as an FBI agent. Holly Hunter, Hal Holbrook, David Strathairn and Gary Busey are also on hand.This has long been one of my favorites from this genre. You really feel for McDeere (Cruise) & his wife as their utopia morphs into an inescapable hell. In the Washington DC scene you grasp how limited their choices are as they're caught in a crossfire between the Mob and the FBI. McDeere must use his wits, his knowledge and "golden connections" for them to get out unscathed, if possible. I always favored the piano score by Dave Grusin, which some have described as "bouncy." While you could call it that, it has different tones depending on the sequence. For instance, during the closing city chase it's driving and portentous. There's also a melancholic component when suitable. The positive side of the piano score is that it makes the film timeless. Consider quality movies from that general era which were horribly dated by conventional scores, like "No Way Out" (1987). THE FILM RUNS 2 hour, 34 minutes and was shot in Memphis, Tennessee; West Memphis, Arkansas; Cayman Islands; Washington DC; Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts. GRADE: A/A-

Tom Cruise's character is officially the dumbest lawyer who's ever lived! He doesn't ask a question when a supposedly small Memphis law firm offers him far more than a Wall Street firm. Really? And, it's all downhill from there in John Grisham's impossibly laughable pulp thriller.Grisham has always turned out potboilers, melodramatic legal tales that strain credulity. But this, his first, is even more impossible to believe than most!The film is reasonably made. But, a competently made film that has a truly Loony Tunes blueprint is just that. And, the believability just gets more and more strained as it goes.Dave Grusin attempts a one-instrument-only film score with performing the whole thing with only a piano. It's an admirable attempt, but it just doesn't work. Bernard Hermann created an all-string film score for "Psycho," but that included the full string section: violins, cellos, bass violins, etc.This movie is such a joke! Embarrassing.** (2 Out of 10 Stars)

Though some might think it's pretty slow paced -- and it really is, this movie is thriller all the way. It builds its story as the movie progresses (and it "progresses! a lot [154 minutes]) and I was entertained from the beginning until the end; and what an (add unexpected here) end.I read that some people thought the ending wasn't good, but I thought it reflected the whole movie's idea and message behind it. I thought it was a nice way to end it.This is a nice movie to watch on a weekend with a free, open mind. You might get surprised by how immersed you might get, as tension grows for each minute it passes.

This is an example of Hollywood rewriting at its worst ! They changed this wonderful thriller of a book into a long boring commercial for the supposed high ethical standards of the legal community. A lawyer is willing to risk his life to protect client information?!? Nonsense ! The book is fast paced and interesting and yes the lawyers are just as sleazy as the mafia. This is not to say that all lawyers are sleazy but nor are they all saints. Some reviewers have said that the music was ridiculous and they are right. Unlike the book, the pace is so slow, that you will have the urge to start checking your email. Be sure to MISS this movie.