Good, but not great

Rating: 10/10 (10 December 1999)

"The Green Mile" will doubtlessly be nominated for Best Picture. Which is unfortunate, as it doesn't deserve to be.
Comparisons to "The Shawshank Redemption" are inevitable, but, despite their similar origins, they are entirely separate entities, and deserve to be graded as such. However, "The Green Mile" probably would have been better served by being a bit more like "Shawshank".
Michael Clarke Duncan (in the role of John Coffey) and Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecomb are the only fleshed out characters here. Doug Hutchison as a particularly nasty prison guard certainly stands out, but he is a caricature, which is the unfortunate truth of almost the entire supporting cast. Barry Pepper and Jeffrey DeMunn as fellow guards could have played each others' characters, and doubtlessly it would have gone unnoticed.
The performances are not bad, by any means, but the performers themselves are given little to do. It isn't helped by the fact that every significant moment is announced to the audience by slow motion photography, swelling music, and sparks of light coming from the damndest places. Which is what the entire movie boils down to: manufactured emotions. People will certainly come away from this movie teary-eyed, with visions of Oscar dancing in their heads. But if you were to ask one of those people why they were weeping, they probably wouldn't be able to tell you. And not because it's indefinable. The movie simply does such a thorough and subtle job of pushing the right buttons that people don't realize they've been pushed.
This is a good movie, and if you want a good cry, I certainly recommend it. But it's not one of the best films of the year, despite what others may tell you.