acting si, story no

Rating: 4/10 (18 June 2000)

I still don't know if I really liked the movie or just loved the actors and Tom Hanks surprisingly is not the strongest of these. The prisoners are such incredibly interesting people, especially the chilly "Wild Bill" and the crazy De La Croix. I didn't even recognize Patricia Clarkson who was so good as the heroin addict girl friend to Ally Sheedy's photographer in High Art, here is the sweet (too?) wife of the warden. It is a small role but she did the most with what she was given. Then there is that incredible center piece , the guy that plays John Coffey, the original gentle giant wrongly accused, incompetently represented, predictably convicted and oh so beatific.
The real problem is that this movie is: A. too long.
B Too predictable (Wild Bill was the real killer to me almost as soon as the warden told Hanks that they had a real hard case coming in.)

C. too hackneyed in production (The storm the night De la Croix is executed.

D. Too silly Does Hanks really have to pee that much (Maybe it is just me, but as career signatures go, I much prefer Nicholas Cage's fondness for Volvo's to Hanks peeing). and
E. Too gooey sweet, Brutal may be how a real death row guard operates, but this Brutal was the sweetest guy you will ever meet as were all of his cronies except of course for Percy.
Which brings us to Percy who epitomizes the movie as a whole, well acted but poorly scripted, after the botched job he did in front of witnesses even the governor is going to say to him "son you {blew it} this time and there isn't anything we are going to do about it" this if he is still there after failing to help another guard in an emergency. How can we believe this guy? As much fun as he is too watch strutting around getting us ready for his just reward (Is there ever any doubt that justice will be done?) he is like everyone else in the film written out of someone's fantasy book.