- Film Review
- Reviewed By John Ferguson
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4 out of 5
This adaptation of John Grisham's first novel cleaned up at the box office and propelled the then unknown Matthew McConaughey to the front rank of Hollywood stars. McConaughey plays an inexperienced southern lawyer defending a working-class black father (Samuel L Jackson) who publicly murdered the man who abducted and raped his ten-year-old daughter. Sandra Bullock is the enthusiastic law student who offers to help McConaughey. In the redneck corner are politically ambitious district attorney Kevin Spacey and most of the small town of Clanton, Mississippi, where the Ku Klux Klan exerts a sinister influence. McConaughey makes a good fist of the lead role, but, as with most Grisham adaptations, the real strength is in the supporting turns - Spacey, Jackson, Donald and Kiefer Sutherland, Chris Cooper and Oliver Platt are all superb. It's a bit too long, but, as most lawyers charge by the hour, why should that be a surprise?
Plot Summary
Thriller based on John Grisham's bestselling novel, starring Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L Jackson, Sandra Bullock and Kevin Spacey. Carl Lee Hailey, a black Mississippi factory worker, shoots the two racist thugs who brutally assaulted his ten-year-old daughter. When white lawyer Jake Brigance takes on Hailey's case, long-standing tensions in the small town of Clanton come to the surface.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Jake Brigance
- Matthew McConaughey
- Ellen Roark
- Sandra Bullock
- Carl Lee Hailey
- Samuel L Jackson
- Rufus Buckley
- Kevin Spacey
- Harry Rex Vonner
- Oliver Platt
- Sheriff Ozzie Walls
- Charles S Dutton
- Ethel Twitty
- Brenda Fricker
- Lucien Wilbanks
- Donald Sutherland
- Freddie Cobb
- Kiefer Sutherland
- Judge Omar Noose
- Patrick McGoohan
- Carla Brigance
- Ashley Judd
- Tonya Hailey
- Rae'ven Larrymore Kelly
- Norman Reinfield
- Jonathan Hadary
- Dr Rodeheaver
- Anthony Heald
- Gwen Hailey
- Tonea Stewart
- Pete Willard
- Doug Hutchinson
- Deputy Dwayne Powell Looney
- Chris Cooper
- Billy Ray Cobb
- Nicky Katt
- Stump Sisson
- Kurtwood Smith
- Reverend Isaiah Street
- Joe Seneca
- Dr Willard Tyrell "WT" Bass
- M Emmet Walsh
- Tim Nunley
- John Diehl
Crew
- Director
- Joel Schumacher
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