A Tearjerker for sure, but a Manipulative One

Rating: 5/10 (13 December 1999)

Yes, I had a hard time holding back the tears. But, when I left the theater I though to myself, "what the heck were you getting all choked up about?".

The film purposely raises one's spirits to the max in one scene, and in the next beats the audience mercilessly with misty drama. In fact, the entire movie consisted of this exhausting pattern of lift-you-up-then-beat-you-down techniques, and after reflecting back on the film, I felt very manipulated, almost cheated out of my tears. There was no compelling character depth or sincerity of events that could be perceived as genuinely touching (and deserving of tears), only highly contrived sequences in which the film doesn't compel your emotions, it forces it out of you, even though there is no real substance under the surface melodrama.
It's even more of a surprise that in a THREE HOUR film we learn so very, very little about any of the characters. Even Hanks' character is given very little motivation (why did he become a guard, why did he marry his wife, why is he so kind to the prisoners, and on). And the supporting characters are given one-dimensional, cliched roles (the brute, the old-timer, the rookie, the sadist).
Accordingly, the supposed center of this spiritual, modern Biblical tale, John Coffey, remains completely in the dark. If the four guards are as compassionate as the film would have us believe, then why do none of the guards ever actually TALK to Coffey? No one asks where he is from, or how he grew up, or how he found the girls--they just sort of talk about him while reveling in his miracles; how compassionate is that?

The focus on the sadistic guard and the lunatic inmate were to heavy--the bonding between Edgecombe and Coffey needed more fleshing out. It would seem that the mouse (a much overused metaphor in a film very, very concerned about contrasts) received more screen time than Coffey himself; and although this may parallel a certain theme within the picture, it works too harshly against the much needed character development.
This movie yearns to be exhalted as a rich, spiritual journey, but in the end, after all the tears had been shed (or pummeled out), I felt empty and cheated.