Conference bookie::movies

Tommy Lee Jones is the prosecutor, or a cop (her opponent, at least), from
the trailers.

    He's the prosecutor who wants to get the kid to testify.
    
    I read the book a while ago; it looks like they've made some
    significant changes, particularly in the relationship between the kid
    and his lawyer (Sarandon).

    I took this in the other night.
    
    I haven't seen "the Pelcian Brief" yet, but I have seen "The Firm" (and
    I've read all three books, although I cheated and skipped to the end of
    The Client because I got bored with the characters and just wanted to
    see if he got killed or not).
    
    John Grisham books, or at least the ones that have made to the big
    screen, are designed for mass consumption.  Thin on characterisation,
    thin and similar in plot and really not written all that well, but
    well and tightly enough that you can plow through them on an airplane
    ride. There's a reason they sell so well at airports.
    
    And for movie screenplays.  The Client is no exception and the result
    is a decent adaptation of the book with some improvements over it. 
    Susan Sarandon is capable as Reggie Love, the good lawyer, Tommy Lee
    Jones has less screen time and preens more than he did in "The
    Fugitive", but basically plays the same characer as he did in that
    movie (he's the bad lawyer, or one of them).   A kid who's name I can't
    remember plays the client, one Mark Sway, who's stumbled onto
    "information he shouldn't know about" and is in danger from the Mafia
    (played by a bunch of character actors who aren't called on to do
    anything other than play stock Mafia characters). 
    
    Grisham seems to have this thing against the goverment and
    particularly, cops and the FBI.  They are the bad guys even more so
    than the Mafia is, harassing poor Mark Sway (a trailer park kinda kid)
    to the point where he thinks he needs to get a laywer.  He retains
    Reggie Love for the sum of $1 (gee, where are dollar laywers when you
    need 'em around here?), and she, naturally, is a pretty good lawyer. 
    The movie basically concerns Reggie's efforts to keep the FBI off of
    Mark's back and later on (but less substantially), keeping him  alive
    when the Mafia finally decides Mark might not keep his mouth shut.
    
    It was an all right movie.  The protagonists were much more palatable
    in the movie than they were in the book (I find Grisham's heros to be
    too perfect to be likable), and the actors all do a decent job.  The
    plot moves forward at a 120-minute movie pace and although the last
    part of the movie wobbles on uncertain feet, it wasn't a bad way to
    spend an airconditioned two hours.  There are no big plot surprises
    for those who haven't read the book -- everything happens kinda like
    you expect it too.  No sex, a bit of swearing, no naked people, only a
    little bit of grislyness, not very much violence, a few "kid in peril"
    scenes.  It's more of drama movie than any sort of action film, but
    it's very lightweight drama.
    
    If you liked the movie "The Firm" and possibly "The Pelican Brief",
    you'll probably like "The Client".  I believe we can expect "The
    Chamber" out next (which is a shame because Grisham's best written book
    was his first, but thus far, I think there are no plans to film it.)
    
    **.5 out of ****
    
    kim

    I haven't read any of the books, but I did see the movie of "The
    Pelican Brief", and I think this is much, much better.  Sarandon,
    Jones, and the kid (who is really the lead character) are all good, and
    the lesser characters are well cast.  There is some amusing local
    colour/social satire, and some real suspense.  One scene I liked was
    the last one between Jones and Sarandon -- 2 stars playing off each
    other nicely.
    
    Sure, it's nothing new, but it struck me as a highly professional,
    workmanlike Hollywood entertainment that didn't sink too low in its
    efforts to "thrill" and presented some sympathetic characters.  I
    enjoyed it.
    
    -Stephen

    Tell me now, kill me later;
    
    What was his first book?
    
    Michael

    Re: .5
    
    His first is called _A Time to Kill_.  The opening is not an easy read,
    being a rather graphic narrative of a horrendous gang rape of a girl
    some 10 years old.

    "A Time to Kill".
    
    
    kim
    

    I saw this movie within hours of re-reading the novel, which was a
    mistake because I was distracted by all the changes.  Granted, you make
    changes when you adapt a book to screen, but I don't agree with some of
    the changes.
    
    For one thing, the relationship between Reggie and Mark is very
    different.  It seems to be a Hollywood rule that whenever you have two
    protagonists, they have to start out with an adversarial relationship
    and then win each other over, generally demonstrated in some scene of
    poignant tenderness.  The legal forces arrayed against Mark have been
    simplified, so Ray Foltrigg has a much larger role.  We get another
    variation of the adversaries-developing-mutual-respect shtick here.
    
    I resented a lot of the Hollywood moments.  It's not enough for us to
    know that Reggie misses the kids she lost in a divorce, we have to send
    her to the garage to stumble across childhood momentoes and cry over
    them.  We can't be trusted to figure out that Reggie and Mark are
    developing a surrogate mother-child relationship, we have to have
    Mark's mom accuse Reggie of trying to displace her.  In the book, it's
    clearly established that Reggie takes a motherly interest in all her
    young clients.  Here, we have standard lawyer-movie scenes with people
    warning the lawyer to keep her objectivity and not get emotionally
    involved with her client.  This is the usual "the hero is so special
    that the mentor-type breaks the rules for him" bit, which crops up in
    just about any movie one could name.
    
    The performances were all very good, especially Brad Renfro as Mark. 
    The movie seemed well made and the plot moved along.  If you haven't
    read the book (is there anyone left who hasn't?) or you're not really
    picky about literary faithfulness, you'll probably find it worth a full 
    price ticket.

  I saw this movie over the weekend and I liked it a lot. Tommy Lee Jones plays
a part a lot like the part he played in the Fugitive but he does that part well
so it's worth watching. Susan Sarandon does a fine job as the lawyer and the
kid, who ever he is, did a really good job as well. Sort of reminded me of
River Phoenix in what ever that movie was where he was a little kid. 

  There's nothing really new here and it is somewhat predictable but then as
the saying goes there are only suppose to be something like 8 stories that keep
getting told over and over. They do the story really well. There are no slow
parts, the acting is good, the relationships work, it's a good movie.

  Definite go see,
  **** out of 5
  George

> River Phoenix in what ever that movie was where he was a little kid. 
    
    Stand By Me?

    RE: .10  by VMSDEV::HALLYB 
    
>> River Phoenix in what ever that movie was where he was a little kid. 
    
    >Stand By Me?
    
    "The Mosquito Coast"?
    

    The kid who played the client is Jason Richter. His only previous
    experience was the lead in Free Willy. Very natural talent.
    						Jim

Sorry, the client in The Client was Brad Renfro, and this is his first film.

    the two kids in the movie were cast from an open call in the Memphis
    area.  this is the first film for both of them.  The younger one is the
    cousin of a friend of mine.

This was Brad Renfro's first movie, but he's wasting no time; he's already
working on "The Cure", filming in Stillwater, MN, with Joseph Mazzello (the
little boy in Jurassic Park, Shadowlands, and the upcoming River Wild).
Probably won't be out until next year some time.  Nothing listed here for
David Speck (the other boy in The Client).

    I finally saw this movie thie past weekend and was very disappointed
    for several reasons:
    
    The many changes from the book bothered me, the wasting of talent from
    both Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon, the unbearable s-l-o-w pace of
    this film, the shiny suits worn by Barry the Blade and mostly the way
    it all just came rushing together at then end of the movie.  Thank God
    they didn't try to develop any kind of romantic connection between
    Jones and Sarandon.  You all realize this is the first movie in a long
    time where we didn't even see one on-screen kiss!
    
    Mary Jo

    
    	Did I hear correctly that there is a TV series coming in the
    	fall?
    
    
    	Anyways, I thought the movie was excellent.  I missed maybe the
    	1st 20 minutes or so, but I could figure out what happened once
    	they started getting into the story.
    
    	Good story, excellent acting ... and all this from a movie with
    	only a morsel of gore!!  Who'd'a thought?
    

    
     I saw this at the weekend and enjoyed it greatly!Very good indeed!
    
    
    
    
    						ian

    Saw this last night - Having never read the book, I thoroughly enjoyed
    this film - and I'm not one for serious films usually!!
    
    Good pace, great acting, great storyline - and all without any sex of
    overindulgent gore!!!
    
    I didn't get fidgety once!! Would definately recommend it for a video
    rental!!
    
    S..x