Too much of everything

As Good As It Gets

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

It was something else, seeing The Rainmaker again, 20 years later. The plot, the cast, the look of it, it all has that Coppola touch and thathas to be with truth, the way he, Francis Ford Coppola sees it. Beautiful, powerful and moving but the most powerful element after 20 years turns out to be Johnny Whitworth. What a gorgeous, soulful performance. It took me by surprise, I remember the character from my first viewing but this time his is the character who affected me the most. Imagine in a cast that includes Teresa Wright! Yes, Teresa Wright, Dean Stockwell as well as Matt Damon, Mary Kay Place, Jon Voight, Danny De Vito, Mickey Rourke, Claire Danes. Time does extraordinary things. It reveals the center of the center of the truth.

Well, I'm a law school student in the last year of graduation, who has been approved in the bar exam (it has another name in Brazil), so it's evident that I feel much connected with Rudy Baylor. The movie is centered on the difficulties this young lawyer has to face to get things done. He has to avoid speaking on the phone in his own office in order to not fall in a trap from the adversary attorney. What amazes me about this film is that, even thought there were thousand of courtroom dramas in the nineties, "The Rainmaker" was able to show a story not so clichéd, like the innocent who goes to prison due to a conspiracy-- which would feel extremely cliché nowadays. Also, the entire cast looks prepared for their work in here; Danny DeVito, in fact, almost steals the show with his brilliant performance as a paralegal-- who acts like a lawyer sometimes, even if that's illegal. Furthermore, albeit the movie takes more than two hours to tell a story, it never feels tiring or repetitive, which is common in the genre. The problem involving health insurance companies is still very common, inclusive in Brazil, and we are all tired of seeing such lack of respect with the consumer. I'm just not giving it a better rating because the subplot involving a beaten-up woman didn't feel pertinent with the movie as a whole. I mean, if director/editor decided to take those scenes off, they would make NO difference to the main plot, so I sometimes wondered what was that all about. All in all, "The Rainmaker" is a decent production from the good decade that nineties was in movies, and I surely recommend it for anyone who enjoys the genre!

Lets start at the beginning; any film based on a John Grisham book has a head start in terms of plot. This is no exception. The Rainmaker is a very good story about a newly qualified lawyer who takes on a multi-billion insurance company for the family of a young man dying of leukaemia. Exciting stuff with a pleasing if slightly simplified end, but a entertaining law-procedural plot. Enter, the amazing acting talent of Matt Damon. He was excellent in this film, measured, quietly strong and believable up against the arrogance of his opposite number Jon Voight for the Insurance Company. Also, Danny DeVito was good, and he and Damon seemed to work well together. Some of the make up special effects were a little poor. Aside from the main characters, some of the acting wasn't deep or developed enough but were generally good but the actual production of the film was lacking something. The sound quality was bad, there seems to be pauses in the action, and some continuity and pacing issues. The film feels amateurish and low budget. Coppola, who directed, clearly wanted a grim and grey feel to the film, which I think he achieved but it didn't make it look that good. However, it is Damon and DeVito and the story that carries this film and that is what you are invested in with a John Grisham film. Definitely highly entertaining.

Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) is fresh out of law school. He has no family, or any connections. He starts to work for notorious lawyer Bruiser Stone (Mickey Rourke), and with street smart Deck Shifflet (Danny DeVito) who can't pass the bar. They take on a case against a health insurance company who refuses a claim from a seriously sick boy. Meanwhile, he falls for Kelly Riker (Claire Danes) who is in constant fear of her abusive husband.This is a simple David vs Galioth story from the pen of John Grisham and the directing skills of Francis Ford Coppola. There are big time talents involve in this. Matt Damon is superb in the boyish charm department. Danny DeVito likewise is superb. The acting in this movie is top notch. However the Claire Danes battered wife storyline is too simple and too separate. It doesn't really connect with the rest of the movie. The romance seems to be sidelined in importance and short shrifted. It needs more attention. On the other hand, the courtroom drama has good fun and good tension.