Wonderful character development!

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I enjoy legal conflicts and courtroom movies. Not much action, usually, but lots of chicanery. There seems to have been a spate of movies over the last decade or two about strong-willed women having their way with miscreants. "Zero Dark Thirty," though not a courtroom drama, was quite good except for the strident and unnecessary outburst by Jessica Chastain employing the MF word in the presence of the Secretary of Defense. "Erin Brokovitch," also a professional piece, had Julia Roberts shocking the rest of the room by claiming she'd seduced the witnesses with BJs. I wish the fad would exhaust itself because it provides a cheap thrill at the expense of verisimilitude.In "Marie," one of the earliest, Sissy Spacek as the principled Chairman of the Parole Board in Tennessee is spared that chore. And Spacek, with her tiny figure and long red hair, is sort of loomed over by the guys she works for -- especially Fred Dalton Thompson, in his debut role playing himself, who wears the same dyspeptic expression he wore throughout his career. He looks like what you would look like if you were losing a duel of wits with a claw machine in an arcade. In one scene, when Spacek wins her court case, she hugs him and he tries to smile but what emerges is a teeth-filled snarl, as of a threatening junkyard dog.The problem is that it's a kind of clunky picture. The major performances are good enough, and Spacek is thoroughly convincing. She's also a genial lady with pretty legs, my co-star in the unforgettable "Crimes of the Limbic System" or whatever it was.There's a murder in here. Spacek's only true friend, who is going to testify at her trial and save her bacon, is strangled. A slight problem there. The incident is never referred to again. Instead we're immediately back to Spacek's underwhelming tribulation: Will she be able to hang onto her job, despite the governor's accusations of sloppiness? Never mind the murder of her friend, who denounced her in a letter. (Some friend.) But will the jury accept the governor's lies? Guess.It's a mid-range movie that loses its focus and takes us on a tour of a pistachio nut that one of her three kids swallowed. The peregrinations of the nut make no medical sense. Neither do some other details, not worth going into. The writing is pretty murky and the direction is adequate, no more than that. Little in the way of local color.Not a bad movie but I'd rather expected more because I'd seen both "Brokovitch" and "Zero Dark Thirty" first. They're both fine but this one is a bit like a Lifetime Movie Network feature. Not a knock on the performers, just that their roles are poorly written.

There are more than a few movies about women battling and (hopefully) beating the system, so the field was already getting pretty crowded by 1985, when this film hit the cinemas. But it stands up there with the best of them; the greater surprise is that "Marie" is so less well known than, for instance, "Erin Brockovich" or "Norma Ray". The people involved in making this production are all out of the top drawer: Sissy Spacek in the lead role, supported by Jeff Daniels, Keith Szarabajka, Fred Thompson and Morgan Freeman (in a comparatively small part); director Roger Donaldson; cameraman Sam Mendes; and screenwriter John Briley. The script is tightly written, with a good pattern of sequences that moves the action through suspense (or, more precisely, a sense of menace), anxious domestic incidents, and lighter casual moments: the story looks and feels authentic. Spacek is terrific in the lead role of a "not perfect" person who just won't let herself be pushed aside when her integrity gets in the way of her political masters. But no element of the production is weak: the final court drama is beautifully played (how much better are these sequences when they rely on real transcripts), and so is the dynamic within the family of the woman on a mission. Highly recommended.

This was a great thriller, and is especially timely today, with all the corruption and lawbreaking at the top of government,But I disagree with Michael Morrison when he says that Ray Blanton ended his governorship the way President Clinton ended his presidency. I've seen the movie twice, and have researched Blanton. The truth is, Blanton was a very corrupt official who did very little for his constituents and did not care about upholding the law or about the people who elected him. Unless everything I've read about Blanton, and saw in the film, was incorrect, Mr. Morrison is wrong. The truth is, Blanton left office in disgrace, with a dismal record as governor. Among those who remember him, he holds very little respect. In fact, even though The Tennessee State Constitution was amended in 1978 to allow Blanton and future Tennessee governors to succeed themselves. he did not run for reelection. In fact, due to the controversy surrounding his administration and lack of respect the public felt about him, it was very unlikely he would have been renominated, let alone reelected, had he chosen to run.So Mr. Morrison observations are 180 degrees wrong.As far as the movie, itself, is concerned, the story is strong. I was actually getting hot under the collar watching the corruption going on, even though it was only a movie. Spissy Spacek's performance as Marie Ragghianti made me genuinely feel the frustration of being in a position where she has to choose between siding with the law and your citizens or siding with a corrupt government official (who will abuse his power and authority in order to put you down if you don't join his side). This is true testimony to her acting skills.Fred Thompson plays himself in this film; a skillful performance which led to his eventual full-time career as an actor. As a real life politician, himself, he skillfully is able to draw on his personal experience to bring certain depth to both his role here and subsequent acting roles he carried.Although the situation in Tennesee, back in the 1970s, doesn't come close to the level of corruption today, at the Federal level, it does serve as an excellent morality tale of what can and, indeed, has happened. It's a bite size version of the bigger story that is going on today.

This movie is based on a true story, a story that is, in fact, much worse than is portrayed here. The governor of Tennessee, Ray Blanton, must rank as the worst the state ever had and, as a son of Tennessee, let me tell you that is really saying something. Not to spoil the movie, let me add that Bill Clinton ended his presidency much as did Blanton end his governorship. That fact is sort of hinted at by the movie, but Blanton's governorship was so rife with corruption, with members of his family and his friends and allies living and profiting at the expense of the taxpayers, one movie cannot do the story justice. It would take at least a miniseries to tell the whole tale. This movie, though, makes a good stab at part of the story, the part played by the title character, Marie. Sissy Spacek does her usual good job as Marie, displaying not only her own mature beauty but an admirable emotional range as both the put-upon government employee and the concerned mother. Fred Thompson ... well, there are not enough superlatives in my limited vocabulary to express all my admiration and respect for him. He is a fine actor, and he was one of the greatest U.S. senators ever to represent the usually misrepresented state of Tennessee. Certainly the two there now (2004) don't begin to be big enough to fill his shoes, nor do they remotely resemble him in moral stature, intelligence, or knowledge of the Constitution. Well, he is better off back in acting, but it is a serious loss to good government that Fred Thompson decided not to seek re-election. I'm tempted to say, too, that any movie with John Cullum is a movie to see, if only to watch his scenes. What a superb actor, what a major talent he is. His big scene in "1776" just steals that movie, to name merely one. Not to slight any other person in this excellent cast, but I have gone on long enough. They are excellent. I will carp about three things: Some of the expository dialog was trite and silly, especially the character Kevin's last scene. The courtroom scene was missing something. I believe if I had been on the jury, I'd have voted differently simply because the evidence was not presented well enough. (One can understand Sen. Arlen Specter {more-or-less-R.- Pa.} and his "not proved" impeachment vote.)And why was Bill Sanderson not cast in this? He is a marvelous actor, could probably have handled beautifully almost any role, and besides he is from Tennessee. And he is usually in Spacek's movies. Too bad, for us and for him. Still, I'm glad I finally got to see "Marie." The story is important, and the movie is extremely well done. One more quibble: A very well-known Edmund Burke quote is used several times, but in an odd paraphrase. Not inappropriate, but jarring because of the different phrasing. Never mind. This is a good movie, and I hope everyone sees it.