Warning Track Power

Rating: Null/10 (30 June 2000)

In the baseball world, a hard-hit ball that barely misses being a home run is referred to as having "warning track power;" that is, another foot or so and it would have been out of the park, but as it is, it's just another out. That's the most to-the-point review I can give for "The Green Mile," a film which has all the right pieces, but still comes up about a foot short.
The reason for my disappointment of the film is a simple one, but I'll start off by praising it... there are truly a lot of great things about this movie. The entire cast is excellent; in fact, I can't name a single miscast or inadequate actor in the entire film. As good as Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan are in the lead roles, the supporting roles of Brutal (an exceptional performance by David Morse), Warden Moores (Cromwell), guards Dean Stanton (Pepper) and the hateful Percy Whitmore (Hutchinson), as well as all of the prisoners (Graham Greene, Michael Jeter, and Sam Rockwell) are just as impressive. Even very minor characters, such as Edgecomb's wife and Coffey's lawyer, are exceptionally well cast and acted -- this is a film in which every actor takes his or her precious few lines and makes them count. Not one actor is wasted in his or her role in this film.
Secondly, Darabont's direction, and the photography of the film overall, are also excellent. This is a long film in which very little actually happens, yet Darabont makes an easy to watch and enjoyable story out of it, and thus creates one of the fastest-feeling 3-hour films I have ever seen. Rarely will Darabont surprise his viewer with an "oh-wow" shot, a-la Kubrick -- rather, he allows the story to unfold at a perfect pace, and it is a delight to watch. Many seem to criticize the supernatural element that the film includes, but it is presented so carefully and slowly that, to me, as amazing as it was, it seemed to flow right into the story that was being told.
So what's the problem with this film? Easy: the ending is an awfully written and conceived, tacked-on, ham-fisted piece of junk. This is a three-hour film which attempts to wrap up another hour's worth of loose ends in the final ten minutes, using my least favorite screenwriter's tool, the Old Man Bookending His Story sequence. The story of "The Green Mile" ended with the film's final execution (there are three executions, one of which, for the squeamish, is one of the most horrifying scenes ever committed to film... don't let your kids watch it!) -- why didn't the director end the film there?
Why must so many films today leave so little for the audience to figure out for themselves? Darabont could have opened the movie with a scene of Edgecomb playing with a mouse, and let the audience figure it out on their own on the way home, but no! He had to take a perfectly paced film and bolt on a quick & easy explanation for everything. Do yourself a favor... watch "The Green Mile," but turn it off as soon as the 'flashback' ends. Let it settle in for a day or so, then watch the end to see what you are "missing." That way, hopefully, your impression of the film won't be crushed, as mine was, by the ending.