The Firm (1993 film)

The Firm is a 1993 American legal thriller film directed by Sydney Pollack, and starring Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Hal Holbrook, David Strathairn and Gary Busey. The film is based on the 1991 novel of the same name by author John Grisham.

The Firm
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sydney Pollack
Screenplay by	David Rabe Robert Towne David Rayfiel
Based on	The Firm by John Grisham
Produced by	John Davis Sydney Pollack Scott Rudin
Starring	Tom Cruise Jeanne Tripplehorn Gene Hackman Ed Harris Holly Hunter Hal Holbrook David Strathairn
Cinematography	John Seale
Edited by	William Steinkamp Fredric Steinkamp
Music by	Dave Grusin
Production companies	Davis Entertainment Scott Rudin Productions Mirage Enterprises
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	June 30, 1993 (1993-06-30)
Running time	154 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$42 million
Box office	$270.2 million[1]

Released on June 30, 1993, the film was a major commercial success, grossing $270.2 million against a budget of $42 million, making it the highest grossing film adapted from a Grisham novel, fifth highest-grossing and the highest-grossing R-rated film of 1993, and received generally positive reviews for the performances (particularly from Cruise and Hunter), although the screenplay received some criticism. Holly Hunter was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, while Dave Grusin was nominated for Best Original Score.

Plot

Mitch McDeere, a top Harvard Law School graduate, accepts a lucrative offer from boutique law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke in Memphis, Tennessee. After he and wife Abby relocate there, he prepares for the Tennessee bar exam. Senior partner Avery Tolar mentors Mitch on the firm's strict culture of loyalty, confidentiality, and high fees. Although the money and benefits, such as a new house, a Mercedes-Benz (W124 convertible/cabriolet), and paid-off student loans have swayed Mitch, Abby resents the firm's meddling in employees' personal lives.

Mitch passes the bar exam and works grueling hours, straining his marriage. Under Avery's guidance, Mitch discovers the firm's primary work involves helping wealthy clients hide money in offshore shell corporations and other questionable tax-avoidance schemes. On a work trip to the Cayman Islands, Mitch overhears a client mentioning how the firm's Chicago associates "break legs". At the firm's Cayman condominium, he finds documents linked to four deceased associates. Meanwhile, the firm's security chief, Bill DeVasher, sends a prostitute to seduce Mitch and uses photos of the assignation to blackmail him into silence. Mitch hires private investigator Eddie Lomax, a former cell mate of Mitch's brother Ray, to investigate the associates' deaths, but Lomax is murdered by hitmen, witnessed by his secretary Tammy.

FBI agents reveal to Mitch that BL&L's top client is the Morolto crime family of the Chicago Outfit, and most of the firm's lawyers are involved in a significant tax fraud and money laundering scheme. The deceased associates were killed when they tried to leave the firm. The FBI warns Mitch that his home is bugged and pressures him to provide evidence against the firm and the Moroltos. Mitch agrees to cooperate for $1.5 million and his brother Ray's release from prison. The FBI release Ray and transfer half the money to a Swiss account Mitch has set up. The FBI secretly intend to return Ray to jail after Mitch provides the incriminating files. Mitch has already confessed his one-night stand in the Caymans to Abby, who plans to leave him.

Mitch finds a possible way to save his career after discovering the firm regularly overbills its clients. He realizes it is mail fraud, exposing them to RICO charges. He and Tammy copy the billing records but need additional files from the firm's Cayman condo. Avery changes his schedule, jeopardizing Mitch's plan, so Abby flies to the Caymans and seduces and drugs Avery to get the files. The firm's phone tap records Abby warning Tammy, leading DeVasher's hitmen to pursue them. After Abby copies the files, Avery tells her the firm set up the prostitute who seduced Mitch on the beach. He warns Abby to leave and is later killed by DeVasher's hitmen, staging his death as a bathtub drowning.

Mitch's plans are compromised when a prison guard on the Moroltos' payroll tips off DeVasher about Ray's transfer to FBI custody, forcing him to flee. He is chased through downtown Memphis by DeVasher and his hitman, until the former mistakenly shoots the latter, after which Mitch confronts DeVasher and knocks him unconscious. He meets with the Moroltos, presenting himself as a loyal attorney who uncovered the illegal overbilling, and asks for permission to turn over their invoices to help the FBI prosecute the firm, but assures them that any information about their legal affairs remains safe under attorney–client privilege, implying everything will remain confidential as long as he is alive. The Moroltos reluctantly agree to guarantee Mitch's safety, after which he hands over the evidence and is able to continue his legal career. He and Abby reconcile.

Mitch's decision to work with the Moroltos angers the FBI, but he reminds them that the evidence he has provided is enough to make a RICO case and ensure that the firm's senior members go to prison for a long time. The film ends with the McDeeres returning to Boston in their old car. Ray, now with Tammy, enjoys his new life in the Caymans with the money Mitch obtained for him.

Cast

• Tom Cruise as Mitch McDeere, a promising recent Harvard Law graduate
• Jeanne Tripplehorn as Abby McDeere, Mitch's wife
• Gene Hackman as Avery Tolar, Mitch's mentor at the Firm
• Holly Hunter as Tammy Hemphill, Eddie's secretary and lover who aids Mitch in copying and stealing the files in Memphis and the Cayman Islands
• Ed Harris as FBI Agent Wayne Tarrance, the agent in charge of the investigation into the Firm; Mitch's primary contact with the FBI
• Hal Holbrook as Oliver Lambert, senior partner at the Firm
• Jerry Hardin as Royce McKnight, managing partner at the Firm
• David Strathairn as Ray McDeere, Mitch's brother who was in jail for a manslaughter conviction
• Terry Kinney as Lamar Quinn, Mitch's friend who works at the Firm
• Wilford Brimley as Bill DeVasher, officially the head of security at the Firm—unofficially the Firm's main hitman
• Sullivan Walker as Thomas Abanks, the owner of a scuba diving business
• Gary Busey as Eddie Lomax, a private investigator and former cell-mate of Ray McDeere
• Barbara Garrick as Kay Quinn, Lamar Quinn's wife who befriends both Abby and Mitch
• Steven Hill as FBI Director Denton Voyles
• Margo Martindale as Nina Huff, Mitch's secretary
• Paul Sorvino as Tony Morolto
• Joe Viterelli as Joey Morolto
• Jerry Weintraub as Sonny Capps
• Tobin Bell as The Nordic Man, Morolto Hitman
• Dean Norris as The Squat Man, Morolto Hitman
• Karina Lombard as Young Woman on Beach who seduces Mitch
• John Beal as Nathan Locke
• Paul Calderon as FBI Agent Thomas Richie^[2]

Production

Paramount Pictures initially budgeted the film at $15 million with Charlie Sheen or Jason Patric considered for the lead with a scheduled release date of Christmas 1992. However, producers Scott Rudin and John Davis wanted it to be a bigger production and talked to Tom Cruise on the set of A Few Good Men, who indicated that he wanted to star and direct. With the release date at risk, Rudin and Davis were given one week to sign a director and signed John Badham for $3 million. Soon after, John McTiernan expressed an interest in directing with Cruise starring, which the studio was keen on however, McTiernan wanted Rudin removed as producer. Paramount Communications president Stanley Jaffe decided to keep Rudin so McTiernan went off to make Last Action Hero and Jaffe brought in Sydney Pollack.^[3]

Principal photography took place from November 9, 1992, to March 20, 1993, and though it was primarily filmed in Memphis, Tennessee, some scenes were filmed in Marion, Arkansas, and the Cayman Islands.

The film's soundtrack is almost exclusively solo piano by Dave Grusin.

Gene Hackman's name did not appear on the film's release poster. Hackman joined the film late, when it was already well into production, because the producers had originally wanted to change the gender of the character and cast Meryl Streep, until author John Grisham objected and Hackman was eventually cast. Tom Cruise's deal with Paramount already stated that only his name could appear above the title. Hackman also wanted his name to appear above the title, but when this was refused he asked for his name to be removed completely from the poster.^[4]

This is also the final film for Steven Hill and John Beal.

Release

Theatrical

The film was released while Grisham was at the height of his popularity. That week, Grisham and Michael Crichton evenly divided the top six paperback spots on The New York Times Best Seller list.^[5] It opened on June 30, 1993 in 2,393 theatres, and landed at #1 at the box office, grossing $25.4 million over the 4th of July weekend. It remained in the #1 spot at the box office for 3 weeks. After 12 weeks in theatres, the film was a huge success, making over $158 million domestically and $111 million internationally ($270 million worldwide).^[6][7] Additionally, it was the largest grossing R-rated movie of 1993 and of any film based on a Grisham novel.^[8]

The Firm was one of two films released in 1993 that were adapted from a Grisham novel, the other being The Pelican Brief.

Home media

The film was released on VHS in December 1993, with the cassettes specially made of blue plastic. It was released on LaserDisc in the United States on December 16, 1993 in both widescreen and pan and scan formats.^[9] The DVD was released on May 23, 2000. The special features include only the teaser and theatrical trailers. A Blu-ray edition was released on September 11, 2012. A 4K UHD version was released on June 20, 2023.

Reception

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 76% based on 58 reviews, with an average of 6.20/10. The site's critics consensus states: "The Firm is a big studio thriller that amusingly tears apart the last of 1980s boardroom culture and the false securities it represented."^[10] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 58 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[11] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.^[12]

Roger Ebert gave The Firm three stars out of four, remarking: "The movie is virtually an anthology of good small character performances. [...] The large gallery of characters makes The Firm into a convincing canvas [... 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."^[13]

The film earned some negative reviews as well, notably from James Berardinelli, who said that "[v]ery 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 [and] pedantic thriller."^[14] Grisham enjoyed the film, remarking: "I thought [Tom Cruise] did a good job. He played the innocent young associate very well."^[15]

Awards

The film earned two Academy Award nominations including Best Supporting Actress for Holly Hunter (losing to Anna Paquin for The Piano, though she did win an Oscar at that year's ceremony for Best Actress in the same film as Paquin) and Best Original Score for Dave Grusin (losing to John Williams for Schindler's List).

In other media

Main article: The Firm (2012 TV series)

In April 2011 Entertainment One announced that a sequel to The Firm was being produced with Sony Pictures Television and Paramount Pictures. The series picked up the story of Mitch and his family ten years after the events of the novel and film. The first season was 22 episodes long and began production in Canada in July 2011. In May 2011, NBC confirmed that they had acquired the U.S. broadcast rights to the show and that they planned to début it in January 2012.^[16] The show was cancelled after its first season.