Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful.

Rating: 10/10 (1 December 2003)

I love this film, I really, really love it. I don't care about the three hour running time, it flies in for me. It's a prison drama from Frank Darabont and stars Tom Hanks, James Cromwell, Doug Hutchison, Michael Clarke Duncun, David Morse and Gary Sinise. I think this is perfect. The film is moving, spiritual and heavy with religious symbolism and metaphor. It is deeply interesting and weaves a captivating tale of murder and death, healing and resurrection. While the film doesn't have the overlying sense of perfectionism that The Shawshank Redemption had (Darabont's major break is too good a film to better), there is no denying that this is a worthy follow up to a what is a modern day masterpiece.
The film is based on a novel by Stephen King and brilliantly it develops like one. The first hour is pretty slow. Very little seems to happen and Darabont, like a master novelist, takes time in developing the characters that are centered around the plot before actually kick starting it. We are introduced to Edgcombe (Hanks), evil Percy (Hutchison, stealing the film with a portrayal of sheer brutality) easy going Brutus (Morse), charming Warden Hal Moores and his dying wife, Melinda. We see how all these characters lives are to be impacted by convicted murderer John Coffey, a man convicted of killing two school girls, but who is more of a gentle giant and seems to have the capability of healing people (he takes away Edgcombe's bladder problems and brings a mouse back from the dead). It is the way that these characters develop over the second two hours of the film and how the event impact on their lives that make this a fantastic film.
Darabont's handling of the subject matter is superb. This is a deeply moving film, but never, and I mean never, is there a hint of sentimentality about the proceedings. In fact Darabont is prone to making the film a tad more darker and disturbing. An execution gone wrong and the realization as to what really happened to the two girls that Coffey's was accused of murdering give the film a slightly more horrific edge, but then again this is based on a novel by Stephen King so certain aspects are sure to be disturbing in any case. When all is said and done, this is not a horror film. It is an emotional film, one with a raw power to move. With haunting music from Thomas Newman (one of the best composers working today), one of Hanks' best performances and an ending that is equally optimistic but downbeat, this all results in a tremendous film that quite simply wonderful.