The Firm

Summary

“It’s not sexy, but it’s got teeth!”

In 1993, the movie The Firm was released in theaters. The film was released at the height of novelist John Grisham’s popularity, and proved definitively great commercial appeal for adaptations of his novels. The film was made for $42 million, but grossed $272 million worldwide. The following years would see successful adaptations of The Client, The Pelican Brief, A Time to Kill, and The Rainmaker, before some of Grisham’s less acclaimed novels were adapted. Directed by Sidney Pollack, The Firm continued the ascent of movie star Tom Cruise. The Firm also benefits from strong performances by Hal Holbrook, Gene Hackman, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Holly Hunter. Holly Hunter was nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role, despite only being onscreen for roughly six minutes. I was excited to see that Paramount Pictures was releasing the film in the 4K UHD format, because a few months back I had decided to read the novel. I know that I saw the film at some point in my youth on cable television, but my memories of the film were hazy. My wife and I had some down time and decided to watch the film the other night.

Harvard Law School student Mitchell McDear (Tom Cruise) has worked his way through college. Mitch has overcome the cycle of poverty in his family through hard work and determination. With exceptional grades and an amazing work ethic, Mitch has numerous prospects after graduation. After interviewing with numerous law firms, Mitch is approached by a family values oriented firm named Bendini, Lambert, and Locke out of Memphis. It is a small firm with only forty one lawyers. The firm makes Mitch an offer sealed in an envelope. Senior partner Oliver Lambert (Hal Holbrook) assures Mitch that it will be twenty percent more pay than the highest offer of any other firm. The firm touts that it has no bachelors and no divorces amongst its lawyers. Mitch accepts the job. Mitch will start out as an associate until he passes the Bar Exam. They pull a U-haul in their beaten up car to their new home provided by the firm on an idyllic tree covered street. The house is already furnished, and there is a Mercedes in the garage. Mitch had grown up poor and this is a big deal for him. In a conversation between Abby and one of the firm wives named Kate, Abby is told that the firm encourages having children and that “having a job isn’t forbidden.” Abby finds that interaction strange, but Mitch is entranced by the $96,000 salary and the great life they can have. He starts out his days incredibly early and puts in the time. He is told repeatedly that “No associate has ever failed the bar exam.” He is given tons of briefs to review from the numerous specialist lawyers at the firm. Senior partner Avery Tolar (Gene Hackman) gives Mitch a case to work for a tax related client where he needs to bend the rules as far as they can go without breaking. They have lunch together and Avery tells Mitch the firm looks down upon drinking. Avery proceeds to have two martinis and explains he is allowed his small rebellions. At a dinner at Kate and Lamar’s house, Kate explains that two lawyers have been killed in a diving accident involving a boat explosion on the Grand Cayman. Lamar (Terry Kinney) notes that his kids are just a couple months older than Marty’s. He smokes a cigarette while his sprinklers go off around him. Lamar also mentions that the firm has taken over Mitch’s student loans. Abby recognizes that Kate was scared by the incident. Two FBI agents approach Mitch (Ed Harris and Steven Hill.) They mention, “that firm looks like a health hazard.” They list off four dead lawyers in the last ten years. Mitch sees the portraits hanging of the dead lawyers from the firm and begins investigating. He finds interesting information about the deaths of the two lawyers in Grand Cayman. When he is brought along by Avery to the Grand Cayman, he does a solid job of selling a client. He sneaks away and investigates the charter of the dead attorneys and finds out that there were two other people aboard who paid cash. Their bodies weren’t ever found after the accident. Marty realizes that Avery has numerous files related to the dead attorneys in a closet in his bungalow. After leaving a bar, Marty walks down the beach and stumbles upon a woman in a violent encounter with a man. He intervenes. She is pretty and she manages to entice him into cheating on his wife with her. He is wracked by guilt. As the FBI agents pressure him to work with them, the situation becomes complicated because Mitch also has a a brother named Ray (David Strathairn) who is in prison. Mitch will need to work through every angle to be able to escape with his life and guarantee the safety of his brother and wife.

Due to the fact that I was raised in the Nineties, I have an affinity for the filmmaking of that era. When I rewatch films from that time, it is almost like slipping under a nice comfortable well worn blanket. I think that is partially due to my nostalgia for what felt like a somewhat simpler pre-9/11 time, but it is also due to the fact that the films that were made felt classier. Sidney Pollack directing a John Grisham thriller during Grisham’s best writing phase? Of course the resulting film is a class act. Pollack directed the exceptional paranoid thriller Three Days of the Condor, which I have always considered to be one of the best spy thrillers, and his career was marked by other notable successes such as Tootsie and Out of Africa. Pollack was not the first choice to direct the film, probably because his prior film Havana had been a critical and commercial misfire, but he should have been a natural choice for directing The Firm. The script by Robert Towne, David Rabe, and David Rayfiel changes numerous elements from the novel (mainly in the last third of the film,) but it still maintains the integrity of the novel’s premise. While different than the novel in some pretty striking ways, the film absolutely works. Pollack manages to build tension over the course of the film’s 154 minute runtime as a true slowburn thriller. The film is very rarely violent, but the tension hits a boiling point in the final thirty minutes of the film. Like many of the thrillers from that era, the suspense is caused by the slow realization of danger and the attempt to remove oneself from danger. Thrillers recently have relied so heavily on spectacle that these type of thrillers feel like a lost art. Not every element works perfectly, but the film as a whole works spectacularly well.

The performances in the film are across the board either very good or excellent. Gene Hackman is fantastic in the film. Interestingly, Hackman attempted to have his billing shown on the poster and when he heard that his billing would not be placed above the film like Tom Cruise’s, he asked to have his name taken off the poster. Regardless, his performance is above reproach. Jeanne Tripplehorn is well cast as the love interest. She handles the role well. Holly Hunter was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role. I enjoyed watching her in the film. David Strathairn is somewhat underutilized in his role, but by simply appearing in the film he elevates it. Ed Harris is a lot of fun to watch as an F.B.I. Agent. Wilford Brimley is imposing as one of the firm’s leading security agents. Hal Holbrook is excellent as always, although his screen time is limited. The film stars Tom Cruise and it is an excellent vehicle for the actor. Cruise is one of the last true movie stars and without an actor of his capabilities I believe the picture would have suffered. 

Sydney Pollack brings the absolute best out of all the actors involved in the film. He really brings Memphis to life in a way that few films have matched. This must rank as one of the best Memphis based films, and the film highlights the Peabody Hotel and Mud Island in very clever ways. The piano driven score by Dave Grusin is fantastic. It has a little bit of jazz to it, and key by key it defines the mood of the film. It is exceptional.

The Firm is a classy thriller with a strong slow burn story and excellent performances. It is a solid John Grisham adaptation that holds up thirty years after its release. I enjoyed watching the film with my wife, and definitely recommend checking it out if you like this genre.

Video

Presented in Native 4K in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, The Firm looks decent in Paramount’s new UHD presentation. It is safe to say that the new 4K makeover of The Firm is an upgrade from the dated Blu-ray, but it is not quite as big of an upgrade as one might hope. Some of Paramount’s more recent 4K upgrades have been remarkable, such as The Running Man, and some have been less solid such as Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. This release lands somewhere in between. Fine detail is hit or miss. Color reproduction seemed pretty solid to me. The beginning of the film in particular is fairly soft and needed some work, but there are certainly moments where the new transfer shines. I would set your expectations accordingly.

Audio

Paramount has ported over The Firm’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. I had no real issues with this track. The movie’s piano based score is really nice and the film is not sonically robust by any means, but it does become pretty thrilling in the final third of the picture.

Supplements:

• There are no supplements.
• A digital version of the film is included.

Overall Scores:

Video – 3.5/5 

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 0/5

Overall – 3.75/5

The Firm is a classy thriller that holds up well thirty years after its release. The film takes liberties with the story from the novel, but it essentially is just as good as its source and holds true to the nature of the novel. The film is held together by excellent direction by Sidney Pollack, a wonderfully realized Memphis setting, and great performances from the strong cast. I enjoy revisiting films like this which seem to be made so infrequently these days. Paramount’s 4K UHD release of the film is definitely an upgrade from the dated Blu-ray release, but the visuals are not up to the level of some of their other recent releases (such as The Running Man which looks amazing now.) The audio is essentially interchangeable with the prior release, and sadly there are no special features. I still am happy to have an updated version of this film in my library, but this release could have definitely been improved upon. The release still earns a recommendation based simply upon the quality of the film itself. Like Mitch says in the film, “It’s not sexy, but it’s got teeth!”