A profoundly moving movie

Rating: 8/10 (17 September 2006)

I found myself nearly moved to tears by this film and its characters. The story is wonderful and the movie is cast so well, you can almost forgive the moments where it doesn't feel quite real.
Tom Hanks plays Paul Edgecomb, who is the highest-ranking guard at death row. The movie begins with a new prisoner (Michael Clarke Duncan) arriving at the Green Mile as they call it, so named after the green floor. This new prisoner changes everyone in the prison- criminals and guards alike.
The performances very nearly make the movie. Tom Hanks doesn't have an incredible amount of acting to do (Duncan and Jeter take the main honors in this movie), but as usual he is so honest and real I had no trouble believing him, no matter how outrageous any choices his character makes might seem. I also liked David Morse as Brutal, Edgecomb's second-in-command and good friend. Neither actor is able to steal the scene away from the prisoners though; and I don't think they really try to. If they did, it would have thrown the movie off-balance. Michael Clarke Duncan plays a simple character but he invests him with such passion and honesty that he comes off as real and unreal at the same time- the perfect combination for a movie about the unexplainable. He is perfect as Coffey, and without such a good performance in this role, the movie would have been mediocre. Michael Jeter is also very good and sympathetic in his role as the French prisoner. Doug Hutchison is appropriately sleazy in his role and Sam Rockwell appropriately crazy in his. The way these performances fit together is amazing to watch.
Besides the cast, the story is superb. It balances the real and supernatural so well, the supernatural seems to fit perfectly into this world. The movie also wisely does not explain the phenomena- sometimes there are things we just can't explain. I won't ruin exactly what happens, but I will say this: the movie was telling its story well before anything supernatural happened, but when it does happen it feels right, and you know you're dealing with a movie that has all the trappings of achieving greatness.
However there are certain scenes that feel awkward to me. The scene where Paul invites the other guards to dinner and then forces them to decide what to do seemed contrived to me, as did the entire prologue to the movie. Even so, I really liked the movie and the epilogue is so satisfying and it completes the movie so well, I'm willing to put those scenes aside and wholeheartedly recommend this movie. It's quite a story, and deserves to be heard by anyone who loves movies.