The Firm (1993)
Only six months passed after A Few Good Men was released before another film starring Tom Cruise as a lawyer premiered. This film is The Firm, a lengthy adaptation of the John Grisham novel by the same name. Cruise plays Mitch McDeere, a lawyer fresh out of law school who has just received the job offer of a lifetime. However, it doesn't take long for Mitch's life -- and the movie in general -- to descend into outlandish chaos.
Some part of me feels guilty for saying that, especially when this film was directed by Sydney Pollack. Pollack films always carry a sense of refined restraint for me, so much so that they run the risk of being dull that entertainingly messy. That being said, The Firm isn't a bad movie, per sey; it's very competently made and acted (Holly Hunter was nominated for Best Supporting Actress despite appearing in this film for a measly five minutes), but the script takes such a sharp turn into unexpected territory and mishandles the third enough that it dampers the rest of the movie.
Specifically, the drama hinges on the realization that Mitch's employer is involved with large financial crimes. This premise on its own is alright. However, it takes it to the next level with firm partners mysteriously dying and new recruits, such as Mitch, having their house bugged. And maybe even that isn't too strange, given the severity of the crimes they're committing. However, what makes it even stranger is the firm's emphasis on family and showering their lawyers with lavish gifts to lure them in. It's this fact that takes this movie from an average crime thriller to something much, much more baffling. Is this a law firm violating the law, or is it a cult?
There's a number of reasons why the cult route interests me more (I'll explain that later), but the script decides to leave those more bewildering aspects unaddressed as it moves into the climax. And the climax feels much more like an anti-climax; all the tension that existed beforehand surprisingly disappears as more people get involved, largely due to the fact that Cruise is relegated to calling people instead of orchestrating the main action. Generally, other characters doing helpful things to bring a film to a resolution is a great thing, but not when it comes at the expense of shoving the main character aside for a while. After all, The Firm is Mitch's story.
It's hard for me now, even on rewatch, to give my full opinion on this movie because it feels so unfinished. Normally, I might say something about the script needing another draft, but even my ideas for rewrites can't even come into full fruition because The Firm is so aimless in its goals. And, as a result, I'm forced to come up with my own theories to satisfy myself.
What stands out to me about The Firm is Cruise's involvement. Not necessarily because of his performance; if anything, it's understated enough to the point of being uninteresting. Rather, I'm very interested in what drew Cruise to the project in the first place because of the uncanny resemblance it bears to his actual life. Allegedly, he wanted to direct and star in the film, but the reason for this is still unknown to me. Filming began two years after Cruise married Nicole Kidman. If Cruise's first wife, Mimi Rogers, introduced him to Scientology, then Kidman did the opposite. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Kidman managed to weaken Cruise's involvement with the Church of Scientology just months after their December 1990 wedding; Andrew Morton's biography on Cruise claims the same thing. Other allegations regarding Cruise and Scientology feature such stories like David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board of Scientology, showering Cruise in gifts and attention in order to win his loyalty and secretly recording Cruise's auditing sessions, where many personal secrets are revealed, presumably for blackmail purposes. With all this in mind, The Firm quickly becomes a different film altogether.
Prior to now, I've mentioned an interesting pattern where Cruise continually chooses to play characters that have issues with their father. The Firm begins another fascinating pattern, or at least one that intrigues me purely because of how many hours I have wasted on this man: films where he subconsciously acts out his relationship with the Church of Scientology. Ask me one day about my theory on the Mission: Impossible series being a huge metaphor for his time as a Scientologist because it is whether Tom Cruise knows it or not.
As for The Firm, though, it's pretty underwhelming on its own accord. Which is a shame, given how uncomfortably intense the stakes in the film were, but I suppose there's only so much Sydney Pollack could do with the source material (which has a drastically different ending, but I don't really know which one I prefer, in truth).
Rating: 3.25/5 - March 26, 2020
Some part of me feels guilty for saying that, especially when this film was directed by Sydney Pollack. Pollack films always carry a sense of refined restraint for me, so much so that they run the risk of being dull that entertainingly messy. That being said, The Firm isn't a bad movie, per sey; it's very competently made and acted (Holly Hunter was nominated for Best Supporting Actress despite appearing in this film for a measly five minutes), but the script takes such a sharp turn into unexpected territory and mishandles the third enough that it dampers the rest of the movie.
Specifically, the drama hinges on the realization that Mitch's employer is involved with large financial crimes. This premise on its own is alright. However, it takes it to the next level with firm partners mysteriously dying and new recruits, such as Mitch, having their house bugged. And maybe even that isn't too strange, given the severity of the crimes they're committing. However, what makes it even stranger is the firm's emphasis on family and showering their lawyers with lavish gifts to lure them in. It's this fact that takes this movie from an average crime thriller to something much, much more baffling. Is this a law firm violating the law, or is it a cult?
There's a number of reasons why the cult route interests me more (I'll explain that later), but the script decides to leave those more bewildering aspects unaddressed as it moves into the climax. And the climax feels much more like an anti-climax; all the tension that existed beforehand surprisingly disappears as more people get involved, largely due to the fact that Cruise is relegated to calling people instead of orchestrating the main action. Generally, other characters doing helpful things to bring a film to a resolution is a great thing, but not when it comes at the expense of shoving the main character aside for a while. After all, The Firm is Mitch's story.
It's hard for me now, even on rewatch, to give my full opinion on this movie because it feels so unfinished. Normally, I might say something about the script needing another draft, but even my ideas for rewrites can't even come into full fruition because The Firm is so aimless in its goals. And, as a result, I'm forced to come up with my own theories to satisfy myself.
What stands out to me about The Firm is Cruise's involvement. Not necessarily because of his performance; if anything, it's understated enough to the point of being uninteresting. Rather, I'm very interested in what drew Cruise to the project in the first place because of the uncanny resemblance it bears to his actual life. Allegedly, he wanted to direct and star in the film, but the reason for this is still unknown to me. Filming began two years after Cruise married Nicole Kidman. If Cruise's first wife, Mimi Rogers, introduced him to Scientology, then Kidman did the opposite. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Kidman managed to weaken Cruise's involvement with the Church of Scientology just months after their December 1990 wedding; Andrew Morton's biography on Cruise claims the same thing. Other allegations regarding Cruise and Scientology feature such stories like David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board of Scientology, showering Cruise in gifts and attention in order to win his loyalty and secretly recording Cruise's auditing sessions, where many personal secrets are revealed, presumably for blackmail purposes. With all this in mind, The Firm quickly becomes a different film altogether.
Prior to now, I've mentioned an interesting pattern where Cruise continually chooses to play characters that have issues with their father. The Firm begins another fascinating pattern, or at least one that intrigues me purely because of how many hours I have wasted on this man: films where he subconsciously acts out his relationship with the Church of Scientology. Ask me one day about my theory on the Mission: Impossible series being a huge metaphor for his time as a Scientologist because it is whether Tom Cruise knows it or not.
As for The Firm, though, it's pretty underwhelming on its own accord. Which is a shame, given how uncomfortably intense the stakes in the film were, but I suppose there's only so much Sydney Pollack could do with the source material (which has a drastically different ending, but I don't really know which one I prefer, in truth).
Rating: 3.25/5 - March 26, 2020
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