Frank Darabont's "The Green Mile" |
"The Green Mile". Director: Frank Darabont. Writer: Frank Darabont, based on the novel by Stephen King. Cast: Tom Hanks, David Morse, Bonnie Hunt, Michael Clarke Duncan, James Cromwell, Michael Jeter, Graham Greene, Doug Hutchison, Sam Rockwell, Barry Pepper, Jeffrey Demunn, Patricia Clarkson, Harry Dean Stanton, Dabbs Greer, Eve Brent & Gary Sinise. USA 2000. Frank Darabont's Oscar nominated follow up to "The Shawshank Redemption" once again sees him adapting a Stephen King prison novel; hey why mess with a winning formula? The story tells the tale of depression era death row prison warder Paul Edgecomb (Hanks), a good man with a painful urinary infection who life is changed when he encounters new inmate John Coffey (Duncan) a man with a miraculous gift for healing, but also an apparent murderer. King has never been particularly good at characterisation and giving a man a urinary infection does not a well-rounded character make, indeed in most literary circles giving a man a urinary infection is generally frowned upon. Hanks takes his uni-dimensional character and with his normal skill and technique fleshes it out into glorious 2D. Indeed a decidedly podgy looking Hanks may top the credits, but his apparent 'Weight Gain 2000' programme doesn't even begin to bring him close to his gargantuanly proportioned co-star Duncan who 6'5" and 315lbs overshadows the film in every sense of the word. This is apparent from the fact that Duncan has been Oscar nominated, while Academy darling Hank's has mysteriously failed to appear on this years list, despite reprising exactly the same performance of the last decent American son he did in "Apollo 13" and "Forest Gump". As if to acknowledge this his co-star from those two films Gary Sinise puts in a modest cameo to carry on there long established sparing, hey why mess with a winning formula? A criminally wasted Morse along with a couple of other uniformed bit-parters, Pepper and DeMunn, portray background scenery prison guards, while Hutchison portrays a 'writing-by-numbers' bad guy whose character has so few dimension that they actually number in the negative. Jeter, Greene and Rockwell play Duncan's fellow inmates, the first two life affirmingly sympathetic the third a refreshingly nasty piece of work, while Stanton puts in a blink and you'll miss it cameo as the prison janitor. Hunt keeps the home fires burning as Hank's wife and confident, Cromwell & Clarkson appear as the prison governor, and his terminally ill wife (spot the significant plot point?). Clocking in at over three hours some may accuse the film of being a tad overlong, although personally I feel it's horrendously overlong and drawn-out. To his credit Darabont does maintain the pace and keep the plot moving for the film's 187 minute running time. But as Hank's character so ably demonstrates, even with the best will in the world there's only so long you can ignore the burgeoning pressure on your bladder, and 11,220 seconds is some-what beyond that limit. David Tattersall's cinematography is a thing of beauty to behold, with it's drawn-out close up, gentle panning slightly and washed-out colours (de-rigeur of a depression era film, hey why mess with a winning formula). His is a notable absence from the film's list (assuming that 3 can be considered a list) of Oscar nominations. Darabont has been Oscar nominated for his adaptive screenplay (any film over three hours long is automatically guaranteed an adaptive screen play nomination, including Brannagh's word-for-word adaptation of "Hamlet") although not for direction. Oddly enough my biggest criticism of this film is it's complete failure to adapt, Darabont piles cliché upon cliché without adding anything that even begins to smell fresh or original, hey why mess with a winning formula. Darabont has shown a great deal of promise with his first two films, but this, his third film adapted from a King story, his student film being based upon King's "The Woman In The Room", is an unimaginative follow-up to his startling debut. If Darabont is to develop the promise he has displayed it may be time to drop the capital K from his mantra of 'the story is King'. An atmospheric and moving film, but overlong and descends too far into schmaltz at the end. |