Now he makes more money exposing them. Damon is the bright kid from an underprivileged background who can see, even at law school, the way things work. Without connections, it's going to be hard. Integrity isn't worth a banjo string to a horn player because corruption is an attitude that seeps into the body politic and talent is neither here nor there unless used to turn truth into something different. Gary Cooper used to play these parts, and Jimmy Stewart, the honest country boy who can't be bought.
Purity is one thing, smugness quite another.
Damon helps with a performance that never lets go of the fact that this law graduate is green to the gills. DeVito, who energises charm so fast you can't detect the artifice, is an ex-salesman who keeps trying and failing to pass law exams. He's a genius at ambulance chasing and knows his way around the courts blindfold, although officially cannot speak in them. This case is at the centre of Damon's initiation. Not typical Grisham, it is closer to autobiography than fiction.