The Rainmaker on DVD

Dom Robinson reviews

They were totally unqualified to try the case of a lifetime…
but every underdog has his day.Distributed by

Paramount

• Cert:
• Cat.no: PHE 8113
• Running time: 130 minutes
• Year: 1997
• Pressing: 2001
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 33 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Languages: English, French, Spanish
• Subtitles: 7 languages available
• Widescreen: 2.35:1
• 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: Yes
• Disc Format: DVD 9
• Price: £19.99
• Extras: None
  

  ---

  Director:

  Francis Ford Coppola

  (Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, The Godfather Trilogy, The Rainmaker)

Producers:

Georgia Kacandes, Gary Marcus and Steven Reuther

Screenplay:

Francis Ford Coppola (based on the novel by John Grisham)

Music:

Elmer Bernstein

Cast:

Rudy Baylor: Matt Damon
Kelly Riker: Claire Danes
Leo F. Drummond: Jon Voight
Dot Black: Mary Kay Place
Judge Harvey Hale: Dean Stockwell
Miss Birdie: Teresa Wright
Jackie Lemancyzk: Virginia Madsen
Bruiser Stone: Mickey Rourke
Deck Shifflet: Danny DeVito
Cliff Riker: Andrew Shue
Buddy Black: Red West
Donny Ray Black: Johnny Whitworth
Wilfred Keeley: Roy Scheider
Everett Lufkin: Michael Girardin
Judge Tyrone Kipler: Danny Glover

---

The Rainmakeris the latest in the series of film adaptations of thenovels by critically-acclaimed author John Grisham, which include TheFirm, The Pelican Brief, The Client and 1996’s A Time To Kill.

In similar fashion to some of Grisham’s works, The Rainmaker is a storyof a young up-and-coming lawyer, Rudy Baylor, played by Matt Damon one ofthe new stars of Hollywood who won an Oscar for co-writing Good WillHunting with Ben Affleck. Rudy secures a job with a law firm ownedby J. Lyman “Bruiser” Stone (an aging Mickey Rourke) and is promisedhighly lucrative cases in return for hard work and dedication to the company.

He already has two cases on his books: one is a possible insurance scandalbetween a young man, Donnie Ray Black (Johnny Whitworth) suffering fromleukemia and the insurance company, Great Benefit; and the other is an old lady,Miss Birdie (Teresa Wright) who wants to cut her children out of her willand give all the money to a television evangelist, believing it to be the rightthing to do.

As corruption centres around the practices of “Bruiser” Stone, Rudy and fellowcolleague Deck Shifflet (Danny DeVito), neither of whom have passed theirBar exams yet – Rudy is studying for the first time round while Deck has failedthem for the past six years, break away to form their own partnership workingon a “no-win no-fee” basis and taking a third of any revenue from successfulcases.

Rudy’s problems increase when he takes on another case of a beaten wife, KellyRiker (Claire Danes), and gets more involved than he originally intended.As that case and Miss Birdie’s begin to intertwine, the condition of Donny RayBlack worsens and all the odds are stacked against Rudy to fight one of thebiggest cases he’ll ever face with one of the best lawyers around, Leo F.Drummond (Jon Voight), working for the opposition.

---

This film is packed with top-notch performances from all concerned, fromthe younger members of the cast in Matt Damon and Claire Danes to establishedactors with sizeable parts such as Jon Voight, Danny DeVito and DannyGlover as Judge Tyrone Kipler.

To top if off there are a host of cameo roles from Dean Stockwell asJudge Harvey Hale who also has a hand in the case, Virginia Madsen as anex-employee of Great Benefit who is called to the witness stand, Mickey Rourke,Roy Scheider as the C.E.O. of Great Benefit, and Andrew Shue(Kelly’s husband Cliff) who I didn’t recognise in his guise here, and who isbetter-known in his role of Billy Campbell in Melrose Place.

If I had a couple of reservations about this film, though, it would be thatmost book-to-film transitions lose some plot along the way so certain elements,such as “Bruiser” Stone’s corrupt business dealings, appear to be glossed overto a degree; and the more Grisham books that are turned into films, the morewe know how things are going to turn out in the end. However, this filmcertainly comes well-recommended for anyone who enjoys a complex thriller, andexcels from having a fine cast and director (Francis Ford Coppola).

---

This is a disc to buy only if you’re a massive fan of the film and willwatch it again and again for reasons that will become obvious.

The picture has obvious artifacts early on but they clear up as the filmprogresses. Set in the Deep South with an overtly-depressive atmosphere thelook of the film is dark almost throughout, which isn’t Paramount’s faultbut it certainly doesn’t give DVD a chance to shine like it should.On the plus side, we get the film in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, while theRegion 1 DVD wasn’t anamorphic.The average bitrate is 7.5Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 9Mb/s.

Dolby Digital 5.1 comes in English, French and Spanish flavours but whiledialogue is clear, this isn’t a film reliant on special effects so don’texpect much in the way of a Dolby Digital demo.

There’s absolutely no extras whatsoever, the disc contains 33 chapters andsubtitles come in 7 languages:English (and hard of hearing), Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese,Spanish and Swedish. The menus are static and silent.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


0OVERALLReview copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.