In the early 90's, John Grisham rose to the ranks of best-selling novelists. His stories were quick, easy, entertaining, and fed into our fascniation and revulsion with lawyers. THE FIRM was the one that broke him, and given its thrilling plot and Hollywood's love of stories about the wrongful pursuit of money (by anyone but them), it's only natural it would be made into a movie. It is surprising, though, that Pollack and writers David Rabe, David Rayfiel, and Robert Towne (Pollack says he only used Rayfiel and Towne's script; Rabe disputes this) have made this somewhat different from the novel, and even more surprising that it works.
Tom Cruise plays Mitch McDeere, a hungry graduate of Harvard Law School who's being approached by several law firms. Though he'd be a catch anywhere, Mitch settles for the firm of Bendini, Lambert, and Locke, even though it's a small firm in Memphis, because Oliver Lambert (Hal Holbrook) et al are willing to pay him top dollar, and throw in a house and a Mercedes. He and his wife Abby (Jeanne Tripplehorn), who have been living quite frugally, can hardly believe it, but they head on down to Memphis anyway. Abby is a little put off by some of what she hears about the firm from Kay Quinn (Barbara Garrick) - the firm encourages children, they approve of wives working (Abby's a schoolteacher), as if that was something needing approval - but they keep it to themselves. However, Mitch hears about a couple of lawyers before him who died in the firm. He's visited while studying in a bar one night by two FBI agents, Wayne Tarrance (Ed Harris) and Thomas Richie (Paul Calderon), who tell him they're watching his firm. And when he hires Eddie Lomax (Gary Busey), a private detective and friend of Mitch's imprisoned brother Ray (David Strathairn) to investigate, Eddie ends up dead. Soon, Mitch finds out from Denton Voyles (Steven Hill), the head of the FBI, that the firm is really a front for the Mafia. And of course, if you decide you want to leave, the firm will have you killed. Before that even happens, DeVasher (Wilford Brimley), the firm's head of security, has already blackmailed Mitch - while Mitch and his mentor Avery Tolar (Gene Hackman) are on a business trip in the Caymans, Mitch is seduced by a local (Karina Lombard).
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