The Client (1994)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I realize that a film does not need to, and in many cases should not, slavishly follow the book from which it's derived. But the screenwriters on this film would have done well to pay more attention to how Grisham built the personalities of his characters. These were not the people who made the novel such a great read. I didn't care about them nearly as much, and the interpersonal tensions between characters were often added as an easy way to put conflict in individual scenes, while taking away from the overall conflict and suspense of the story.I felt the same way about action sequences in the story. They just felt like cheap shots, and didn't advance the plot or my understanding of the characters of the situation.Trying to consider this as a standalone movie, without considering the book, it still feels forced and contrived. I can't fault the actors for this; I think they did the best with what they had. But the screenwriters, and to a lesser extent the director, really let me down.

Two boys witness a man trying to commit suicide,, one of them is brave enough to pull the hose with the rag stuffed in the exhaust out of the tailpipe. unfortunately for him he get's caught , and our lawyer and the child have a conversation,, the little brother tries to save his big brother and things don't go so well , long story short,, boys escape and the lawyer eventually does kill himself,, the older brother found out something from the lawyer that he shouldn't have and has to hire an attorney because, he is being tracked by the FBI, and the MOB. Tommy Lee Jones,, Susan Sarandon, do a wonderful job in the movie,, Will Patton plays a police officer who is really dislikeable. this is a pretty darn good movie taken from a John Grisham novel. beautifully acted,, lot's of great pacing, there isn't anything that I didn't like about the film.

Ironically enough I saw a Perry Mason episode a few days earlier where a young kid around Brad Renfro's age comes to Raymond Burr seeking legal advice and got taken on as a client eventually. I wonder if John Grisham saw the episode and got the germ of an idea for a book.Renfro is a most wanted individual. He saw a lawyer from New Orleans kill himself and before he died he revealed where the missing body of a Louisiana State Senator was. It seems as though organized crime put a hit on him and the discovery of said body will cinch an indictment against Anthony LaPaglia the number one contract killer in the New Orleans mob.So US Attorney Tommy Lee Jones wants Renfro. LaPaglia wants to silence him. It's all way too overwhelming for Renfro's mother, some poor white trash woman played by Mary Louise Parker. And too overwhelming for Renfro who finds Susan Sarandon as an attorney who will guard his interests.Susan Sarandon got a Best Actress nomination for this film and on the strength of her scenes as a righteous attorney guarding Renfro's interests and her very tender scenes with Renfro earning his trust which was not easy. Sarandon hits all the right notes and every emotion from her in this film rings true to life.Brad Renfro was a complete unknown who was cast in the film because he was a local kid and he does come across as a real kid and very well. Half of Sarandon's nomination should have been credited to him. Sad indeed that he proved to be another young Hollywood tragedy.Down in the cast in a small part that he really makes count is Ossie Davis playing a judge who is trying to sort out everyone's rights in this situation. Davis was a great authority figure on the bench.John Grisham novels have such interesting characters they seem to be almost ready made for a screen adaption. The Client is no exception here, you will be engrossed in the story within seconds of starting to watch this film.

The premise of the film attracts. On practice, this premise is half successful and half average. There are scenes when it is good and thrilling and also scenes which it leaves to be desired.This was the film debut of a young and promising talent named Brad Renfro. And what a glorious start for his career! Not so much for the movie itself which isn't that great, but for his demanding role and especially for his absolutely impeccable performance. He was such a talented young actor, so lively, so energetic and so dedicated to his actings that it's difficult to believe and imagine that his life was destroyed by drug addiction and that, now, sadly he is no longer alive. He was 25 when he died. He was one of those "old school" young talents like you don't see in this generation, one of those really eternal.Brad Renfro plays Mark Sway, a boy who (together with his younger brother Ricky) witnesses a drunk and out-of-his-mind fat, brute guy trying to commit suicide in the most unusual way: by putting one end of a garden hose in the exhaust pipe of the car and the other end into a rear passenger window, and rolls up the window, so that the carbon monoxide poisoning can kill him.Mark attempts to prevent that unsuccessfully. But on the 2nd attempt, the insane brute sees what he is doing, grabs him and takes him into the car with him. The entire sequence inside the car is extremely intense. More than seeing, you can feel the tension and panic on Mark Sway: he's sweating, shivering and fearing what that crazy lunatic might DO to him. And his little brother is no less anxious with the stress of the situation. When the 2 brothers escape, the guy shoots himself in the mouth, a horrifying event witnessed by the 2 brothers. The younger brother goes into major shock.Mark Sway lives a living hell since then. He is threatened by a mafia shark with a knife in case he tells anyone what he knows. The boy becomes so frightened that he is forced to lie and even speaks aggressively. Mark swears often, but even when he swears he's cool and cute.After the beginning, another tense scene is when Mark is chased by a criminal but he manages to outsmart him. The story has a happy ending.The best things about this film are the 2 most tense scenes I mentioned, the happy ending and the amazing acting by Brad Renfro and the kid who plays his cute younger brother. Brad Renfro's brilliant acting makes this movie better than it would have otherwise been without him.