Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand"

By 1997, Francis Ford Coppola’s stock could hardly have fallen much further. The glory days of the 1970s long behind him, 1996’s Jack saw the most unanimously negative reviews of his career—indeed of most careers. He bounced back well with The Rainmaker, a terrifically entertaining courtroom drama named by John Grisham as his favourite adaptation of any of his novels. Starring a young Matt Damon as an idealistic attorney whose view of the law comes to be corrupted over the course of a particularly disheartening case, it’s a sharply structured, sensibly paced work of top-tier filmmaking from a director who, despite his prior missteps, evidently still had it. It’s not without its problems, of course, chief among them a disappointingly standard romantic subplot, but The Rainmaker does all it sets out to do, making the most of a great cast that pairs Damon with Danny DeVito, Jon Voight, and Mickey Rourke.

Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand"

By 1997, Francis Ford Coppola’s stock could hardly have fallen much further. The glory days of the 1970s long behind him, 1996’s Jack saw the most unanimously negative reviews of his career—indeed of most careers. He bounced back well with The Rainmaker, a terrifically entertaining courtroom drama named by John Grisham as his favourite adaptation of any of his novels. Starring a young Matt Damon as an idealistic attorney whose view of the law comes to be corrupted over the course of a particularly disheartening case, it’s a sharply structured, sensibly paced work of top-tier filmmaking from a director who, despite his prior missteps, evidently still had it. It’s not without its problems, of course, chief among them a disappointingly standard romantic subplot, but The Rainmaker does all it sets out to do, making the most of a great cast that pairs Damon with Danny DeVito, Jon Voight, and Mickey Rourke.

The Rainmaker is a pretty solid courtroom drama. The cast is strong and performances are good across the board. The main case is engaging as is the subplot and there are a lot of interesting aspects about the legal system revealed. However at the end of the day, the film is never exceptional or very exciting. One can tell what Francis Ford Coppola brought to the project, but even so he doesn't really elevate the film to a higher level. Overall The Rainmaker is a completely solid if unremarkable effort.

Really interested me in the law field. Also enjoy matt damon.

Morals
Legality
Money
Righteousness

While most lawyer movies suffer from having a protagonist that is either too perfect or entirely too lucky, The Rainmaker balances a main character who works hard, but is mainly just lucky to have found a case so large. The main bulk of the movie is fairly serious and well-done at that, but the filmmakers throw in plenty of comic relief dialogue that's never out of place. A solid film.

Coppola shows some quality once again with this superb legal thriller.

If you've read the book (by John Grisham), this film is going to disappoint. It is such a rush job that every aspect of the book's suspense gets killed in the process. Even the star cast (who were alright at best) could not carry the screenplay to a different level.