For some , the Green Mile is just very long

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 2006)

Great movie, Superb Performances, but leaves a lot desired in terms of the Shawshank effect. My opinions are not prejudiced because Tom Hanks happens to be my favorite actor for the past decade and a half plus but what he does with his acting is create a performance which makes me sit back and say " Oh Boy, all what shades can he portray". For e.g in one particular scene when he is showing the pains of urine infection, he makes it look nothing less than real itself. Coz some point of time, guess I had urine infection too and I know what is it. He is so real that he actually makes you believe that he is not Tom Hanks but Paul Edgecomb. The other good acts are by David "Brutal" Morse and who else but John Coffey who does give a stellar performance in front of a legend like Tom.
The movie certainly deserved to be nominated for the best picture as it had an overall impact of a good team performance.
Frank Darabont does an amazing job with the direction, guess but his magnum opus till date has been Shawshank Redemption. I guess when I compare both of them, what I find missing in "The Green Mile" is the sense of conviction in the story itself. Whereas in Shawshank we believe that something like that can happen to people, we think the miracles as shown in The Green Mile are definitely not possible. But then , Paul Edgecomb himself did not believe in them, didn't he.
All in all, the pace of the movie may be slow, but it just holds you like a vice and never lets you go. Good humor and some stirring scenes add to the pace if it gets slow somewhere. I guess, the way the music in Shawshank uplifted our spirits, is not the same with The Green Mile, where the background music leaves a lot to be desired.