Of mice and men... and murderers.

Rating: 3/10 (11 September 2000)

That it should've been, at least.
But let's start at the beginning, which is, I might add, terribly slow. A lot of time passes before something actually happens. King & Darabont use this time to carefully put their chess pieces in place before making their move in the last 60 minutes or so. There's a host of details during the first 2/3s that later become significant. And since I'm not one of those who need to see fireworks of action and suspense from the first instant of a movie, that's fine with me. After all, the pace increases considerably during the course of the movie.
Some of these aforementioned details are so predictable that I could guess the next turn of events half an hour in advance. And that's never a good thing.
The last hour, however, makes up for a lot of the film's former trappings. There's no arguing that the solution is quite touching.
So finally, a movie worth watching, but there were still a few things that bugged me. First, I would've liked to know more about the inmates as murderers, which I guess they were supposed to be. (You never notice, though.) In the way they're portrayed, these are good, righteous people that are good friends with the wardens, love a cute mouse and are generally lovable. So- why are they in death row anyway? I understand the novel shed some light on this, and the film could've certainly needed some of this other side of the story to avoid some of the schmaltz.

Second, isn't this prison just lovely? I mean, it seems like a camping tour at some points. If death row is like that, I want to be in it!
If The Green Mile was supposed to make any statement about the right or wrong of the death sentence, you'd better watch Dead Man Walking to form your own opinion instead of being manipulated into believing that all killers ultimately become nice people once they're in Our Favorite Death Row. It works for tearjerking, but not for discussion of that subject.
But, mind you, I couldn't help being manipulated myself- and it worked. I was genuinely moved at the end and, despite the occasional predictability, the story had its clever moments.
So, it was an OK movie, at times even a bit more, but it sure didn't deserve its Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, and it sure can't hold a candle to King's and Darabont's first joint venture, the brilliant The Shawshank Redemption. 7 out of 10.