This stilted supernatural yarn pushes viewer endurance at more than three hours, without the finely tuned attention to character that made Shawshank so memorable.

Rating: 6/10 (9 February 2010)

The Green Mile is a cracking good yarn that earns its laughter, its wonder and its tears. The story is about a retired prison warden (Tom Hanks) who recalls the time during the Depression when a black inmate (Michael Clarke Duncan), accused of murdering two white girls but blessed with healing powers, arrived on Death Row.
The film is a long, often simplistic but engrossing drama that handles human interest material better than its supernatural aspects; though it can't quite reproduce on celluloid the smell of burning flesh or the agonies of passing kidney stones - both central to the plot - it at least shares one thing with its source: a deep-rooted, fundamental commitment to storytelling. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor, Best Picture, Best Sound, and Best Adapted Screenplay.