(Paramount/UIP)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola Stars: Matt Damon, Claire Danes, Jon Voight, Danny De Vito, Mary Kay Place, Danny Glover, Mickey Rourke, Red West, Andrew Shue, Roy Scheider, Dean Stockwell, Virginia Madsen, Teresa Wright, Johnny Whitworth, Randy Travis

Running time: 138 minutes.

Like Stephen King, former lawyer turned best selling author John Grisham is a licence to print money, as far as Hollywood is concerned. Just about everything that he writes is instantly snapped up and turned into a film. However, The Rainmaker, the sixth of Grisham‘s phenomenally successful legal thrillers to be filmed, is one of the more satisfying. A rich and assured mix of legal pyrotechnics, courtroom drama, and ironic humour, The Rainmaker will please audiences who were disappointed by the recent The Chamber. The characters and the central narrative seem more rooted in reality than the strident racial violence and troubling politics of that film.
In The Rainmaker, Grisham turns an unusually cynical eye upon the law, which has been corrupted by greedy lawyers and large insurance corporations that systematically set out to cheat the poor and ill educated lower classes. This powerful drama of corruption, injustice and legal intrigue also heralds a return to form of sorts for Oscar winning director Francis Ford Coppola.
Fresh out of law school and full of ideals about how the law can help those who most need it, young Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) is in for a rather rude awakening. His first job is with a shady law firm run by the sleazy ambulance chaser “Bruiser” Stone (Mickey Rourke), who owns a string of topless night-clubs and shopping strips. Stone is also under federal investigation for corruption and jury tampering, so Rudy reluctantly sets out to establish his own law office, with help from paralegal Deck Shifflet (Danny De Vito). Although he has failed the bar exam five times, Shifflet knows the law and how to find evidence that most other investigators can’t touch.
Rudy takes a personal interest in his three clients. Miss Birdie (Teresa Wright) is an elderly lady who wants to cut her no-good children out of her will and leave all her money to a tv evangelist. The beautiful and vulnerable but ultimately surprisingly strong Kelly Riker (Claire Danes, from Romeo And Juliet, etc) is the abused wife of the violent Cliff (Melrose Place‘s Andrew Shue, cast against type in an unsympathetic role) whom Rudy tries to protect at great personal cost.
But the case that will make or break Rudy’s fledgling career concerns the Black family, who are suing an insurance company for failing to honour a policy. Their son Donny is dying from leukaemia, and Great Benefit has refused to honour the claim and pay for a bone marrow transplant that could possibly save his life. Rudy is completely unprepared to try such a major case, and he and Shifflet are pitched against a battery of high powered, slick $1000 per hour lawyers, led by the amoral Leo Drummond (Jon Voight).
Coppola draws superb performances from his strong ensemble cast, and even the smaller roles are wonderfully cast. Damon brings a credible naiveté, enthusiasm, integrity and fresh faced youthfulness to his role as the honest lawyer out of his depth. This is a breakthrough role for Damon, who has appeared in smaller roles in films such as School Ties and Courage Under Fire, and he makes the most of his opportunity, delivering a solid performance. As the slick, arrogant but somehow charming Drummond, Voight is marvellous and he chews the scenery at every opportunity in easily his best performance for a long time. De Vito is wonderfully cast as Shifflet, the antithesis of the Hollywood image of a lawyer. Unkempt, shabby and full of nervous energy, he supplies much of the rich vein of humour that underscores the dramatic tension of the courtroom confrontations.
Danny Glover is superbly dry as the sympathetic judge who tacitly supports Rudy’s legal fight against the insurance giant. As Donny’s grieving parents, both Mary Kay Place and Red West (who was once a part of Elvis‘ so-called Memphis Mafia) bring some substance and emotional pain to the film with solid and moving performances. Veterans Roy Scheider and Dean Stockwell contribute small but effective cameos, while even the notoriously erratic Rourke finds rare form under Coppola‘s steady direction.
**** Commences at Greater Union on January 15, other cinemas to follow January 22. ©Greg King January 1998 Melbourne Australia