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Firm, The
Paramount Pictures

Firm, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 58 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.0 out of 10
based on 16 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 1 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for language and some violence

Starring Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Hal Holbrook, Terry Kinney, Wilford Brimley, Ed Harris, and Holly Hunter

John Grisham’s best selling novel comes to the big screen.


GENRE(S): Drama  |  Suspense/Thriller  
WRITTEN BY: David Rabe
Robert Towne
David Rayfiel
John Grisham (book)
 
DIRECTED BY: Sydney Pollack  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: May 23, 2000 
Video: November 12, 1996 
Theatrical: June 30, 1993 
RUNNING TIME: 154 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
The result is a top-drawer melodrama, a polished example of commercial movie-making that manages to improve on the original while retaining its best-selling spirit. [30 Jun 1993 Pg. F1]
90
Variety Todd McCarthy
Rebounding from his biggest career flopflop with "Havana," Sydney Pollack has done an ultra-pro job in giving spit and polish to this star-driven, sure-fire commercial project.
Read Full Review
80
Washington Post Joe Brown
Cruise was born to play company man, and the role is an opportunity to sum up his old roles and transcend them with his most potently emotional work.
Read Full Review
75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
But with a screenplay that developed the story more clearly, this might have been a superior movie, instead of just a good one with some fine performances.
Read Full Review
75
TV Guide Staff(not credited)
This is a professional machine of a movie that compresses huge amounts of information into its two and a half hours of screen time. But it's so weighed down by detail, it fails to generate any real suspense.
Read Full Review
75
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
No one is going to confuse The Firm with art, but its high- cholesterol virtues-a story that keeps you guessing, a dozen meaty character turns-are enough to send you home sated.
Read Full Review
63
USA Today Mike Clark
Yet the film's most serious flaw (next to a newly concocted fizz-out ending) is that it's not sinister enough. [30 Jun 1993 Pg. 01.D]
60
Empire Matt Mueller
An average movie improved by Cruise's star appeal and accomplished supporting cast.
Read Full Review
60
Washington Post Rita Kempley
Pollack makes a solid job of it, as does Cruise. But solid isn't enough when it comes to thrillers -- or courtroom dramas, for that matter. Solid is great when it comes to office furniture.
Read Full Review
50
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
By the film's climax, following the plot movements has become merely complex rather than suspenseful.
Read Full Review
50
The New York Times Vincent Canby
The movie is extremely long (two hours and 34 minutes) and so slow that by the end you feel as if you've been standing up even if you've been sitting down.
Read Full Review
50
The New Yorker Michael Sragow
The supporting cast provides centripetal force; too bad the center cannot hold.
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40
Time Richard Corliss
Tom Cruise heads a tony cast in a best-seller movie that is firm at the start and infirm by the end.
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38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
By then, the lofty ambitions can't disguise the sad reality - it's long, it's cluttered, and it's trite.
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38
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Very little of what made the written version so enjoyable has been successfully translated to the screen, and what we're left with instead is an overly-long (two hours and thirty-four minutes, to be exact), pedantic thriller.
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38
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Director Sydney Pollack zapped out a taut thriller in "Three Days of the Condor". But The Firm is mostly flab, in the manner of Pollack's elephantine Havana.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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