"...but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long..."

Rating: 5/10 (20 February 2000)

Well-acted, nicely shot, and at moments quite moving, "The Green Mile" is ultimately undone by its staggering 188 minute running time. Such languorous pacing adds nothing to the film - except fuel the audience's irritation with an unforgivably predictable plot and some pretty heavy-handed moralizing. Darabont tries his best to wring some significance out of King's story, but the material ultimately proves to be too slight: this tale could have been capably told in 100 minutes or, better yet, deployed as a 20 minute "prison life" vignette in a film such as Darabont's vastly superior "The Shawshank Redemption." Dragging it over three hours stretches the material too thinly, and in the end leaves a potentially deep story looking rather shallow. This is a good lesson in filmmaking: you can have a fine director, a savvy cinematographer, a marvellous score, an excellent cast, and $60 million to play with - but if you don't have a decent screenplay, then you might as well stay home. Just ask Kevin Costner. 5/10