The Green Mile
www.thegreenmile.com
Rated R
Now showing
In 1994, filmmaker Frank Darabont turned a Stephen King prison
drama, The Shawshank Redemption, into one of the decade's
best films. Most would have capitalized on the ensuing 15
minutes of fame and quickly made another film soon afterward,
no matter what the subject matter. But for five years Darabont
has been strangely silent, except for a few uncredited rewrites
of other people's movie scripts, most notably Saving Private
Ryan and Eraser.
So, now that he's had half a decade to contemplate his
next move, what has Darabont come up with for his long-awaited
follow-up? The Green Mile--another Stephen King story
set inside a penitentiary. But perhaps we should give Darabont
the benefit of the doubt: Before The Shawshank Redemption,
virtually no films based on King's writing had been worth
seeing (Stand By Me and The Shining are the
only arguable exceptions). Yet Darabont forged King's work
into an Oscar contender: Clearly he's found an artistic
soulmate in King (of all people), and one can't blame the
director for wanting to continue that partnership. Still,
it raises legitimate questions about Darabont's versatility
and courage as an artist--such as, is this all he can do?
The Green Mile begs for comparison to Shawshank,
and it's a losing battle. Still, considered on its own merits
(as any film deserves), the movie--while overlong and occasionally
heavy-handed--contains engaging intensity, sincerity and
tenderness. Like that of its predecessor, The Green Mile's
story begins when an innocent man is wrongly convicted of
murder. It is 1930s Louisiana, and a hulking man-child named
John Coffey (Michael Duncan) has been sent to Cold Mountain
Penitentiary's death row (nicknamed "The Green Mile" for
its walkway to the electric chair) after being found in
the countryside with two dead little girls. "I couldn't
help it, boss," Coffey says to his captors. "I tried to
take it back, but it was too late." Despite his elephantine
proportions, Coffey has the demeanor of a church mouse,
which perplexes head guard Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) and
his fellow guards, accustomed to hardened and deranged killers.
Before long, the injustice of Coffey's impending execution
becomes undeniable as, one by one, the guards learn that
Coffey holds the ability to perform miracles: With the touch
of his mammoth hand, he can heal physical afflictions and
even restore life itself.
Taking its inspiration from the story of Jesus' crucifixion,
Darabont's film stirs up myriad questions about our right
to judge, the morality of capital punishment and the possibility
that miracles happen in the places we least expect to find
them. Darabont and King don't have any more answers than
we do; instead, their film wisely acts as a springboard
to let us form our own conclusions about the ways of the
world.
As everyman Paul Edgecomb, Hanks delivers a casual performance;
it's hardly as unexpected as his brilliant turn in Philadelphia,
nor is it as complete as the persona he shaped for Forrest
Gump. But without Hanks' patented gift for conveying
simple decency and goodness, The Green Mile would
seem even longer than its 180 minutes. Although the talented
supporting cast features David Morse, Gary Sinise, Harry
Dean Stanton and James Cromwell, the best performance comes
from relative unknown Duncan, whose career has previously
consisted mostly of bit parts as nightclub bouncers. Duncan
resists the temptation to overplay his character's man-child
persona, instead giving this behemoth a sense of dignified
tragedy.
Unfortunately, Darabont's direction does not always match
the power of the story or its characters. Like all too many
movies these days, The Green Mile takes three hours
to accomplish what could have been done in two. From the
needless present-day scenes that bookend the film (one wonders
if this was his unfortunate contribution to Saving Private
Ryan as well) to the liberal infusion of music that
tells us how to feel, Darabont's style often favors extravagant,
sweeping gestures over subtle tone-setters.
These miscues are not enough to sabotage the picture, but
they do prevent The Green Mile from achieving greatness.
A film with this much going for it deserves more praise
than condemnation, and its ultimate quality should not be
determined by comparison to other works. Yet Darabont forces
us to view The Green Mile with the bias of knowing
that he not only can do better, but has already.
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Willamette Week | originally
published December 15,
1999
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