Not Shawshank, but still fabulous

Rating: Null/10 (14 March 2000)

I came into this movie with extremely high expectations. Having seen Shawshank at least 30 times, it IS my absolute favorite movie, I anticipated another masterpiece from Darabont and I was pleased to see such a marvelous piece. So it was three hours. There have been other masterpieces of this length, like Braveheart and Gettysburg. And unlike others, this movie takes its entire length and makes the most out of every scene and every minute. Also taking into consideration that a Stephen King novel is no short piece of work, I'm impressed they were able to consolidate the book into 3 hours anyway.
What makes the movie are these. First the cast is superlative. We start with Tom Hanks, who in my opinion earned his Oscar in THIS film not Private Ryan. His sidekick as it were is David Morse, who we know from his extremely different roles in The Rock and The Long Kiss Goodnight. Cromwell was excellent, as well as Sinise, and Michael Clarke Duncan takes a huge turn from his normal tough-guy and bouncer routines to play the sympathetic John Coffey. What I liked best was to see Barry Pepper and Sam Rockwell who've taken a drastic turn from their normal roles to play something entirely different. Pepper and Hanks were in Ryan together if you remember, but I last remembered him from Enemy of the State. Rockwell was in Box of Moonlight, and he goes from a happy go lucky slacker in a coonskin hat to a crazy psychopath whose past is darker than we first think. This mix of top-billers, lesser-knowns and indies makes for an excellent batch of a cast that carries the film perfectly.
Second of all, the music made it for me. Thomas Newman writes the score, as he did for Shawshank. The man knows how to capture mood so perfectly. His quiet and remorseful piano in Shawshank built the sympathy for Dufresne that Darabont and Stephen King intended. I particularly liked his xylophone like arrangement for the mouse in the movie. I can't put a finger to which melody I liked best, but my emotions have always been dictated by the music and this score had me bawling.
Thirdly, a solidly constructed atmosphere for the movie. The depressed time of the period already adds a certain tone, but the dusty bright daylight of the outside world contrasted to the clean and unchanging condition of the Green Mile really demonstrate the isolation.
And last of all the storyline is magnificent. There are so many small allusions to catch. I can't even really describe it, but there is so much to catch and ponder afterwards so I won't even bother trying to explain it all.
I'm still partial to Shawshank, but this movie was a close second for me. I don't recommend the weak of stomach see it. But if you can bare the gore of Seven and want to see a quality film, I can't think of anything I'd rather recommend.