Good for the spirit

Rating: 10/10 (14 June 2010)

Stephen King's novella is a damn good yarn. The narrative is always engrossing, the source elements of Andy's secret are carefully placed without exciting attention, and you are delighted when events pan out as they do.
Then Darabont adapts it, and a damn good yarn becomes something special. Part of this is the adaptation - a sensitive simplification, part of it is the casting, which is pitch perfect (Morgan Freeman's Red was always an Irish redhead when I read the story - now I can't read it without seeing Morgan Freeman). And most of it, I think, is the direction.
The story unfolds in unhurried fashion, with us being unsure of Andy's guilt for much of the movie, but with a gradually building sense of injustice at the way those in power in the system can treat him (and others) unfairly. The secret doesn't come at the end, but at about the three quarters mark, and brings with it a huge emotional kick. And then the story is allowed to make its own way into a gentle and perfect end.
This is, without any doubt, one of the most spiritually uplifting films I have ever seen.