Tired Grisham formula clouds Coppola's unoriginal 'Rainmaker'

Why Francis Ford Coppola, perhaps one of the few directors who creates the most original, intensifying movies, reduced himself to the banality present in his latest adaptation of John Grisham's decel, "The Rainmaker," is beyond comprehension.

REVIEW
	The Rainmaker At Briarwood and Showcase

The reason for its disappointing outcome has less to do with the multitude of talented actors and actresses in the film than with its nature and progression.

Who hasn't heard the story about the young, inexperienced lawyer who becomes a hero because he exposes corruptive practices in large corporations and among other lawyers? Maybe this unoriginal plot should be excused because Grisham particularly likes it, as shown in most of his best-selling decels.

But given the fact that Coppola had the opportunity to prove he can make a great film out of an uninspired script makes "The Rainmaker" all the more depressing, because he failed to make any exciting impressions.

Fresh out of graduate school, Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) wants to make an honest buck in the city of Memphis, already rife with lawyers. He naively finds employment where he hopes to secure a promising lawyer-client relationship, only to find out that his sleazy boss, Bruiser Stone (Mickey Rourke) has suspicious connections to the very criminals he defends. Rudy also disapproves of the degrading method of snagging clients who haven't even left their hospital bed and so he sets off with partner D

Claire Danes is an abused wife and Matt Damon is her savior in Francis Ford Coppola's predictable production of John Grisham's predictable "The Rainmaker."

eck Shifflet (Danny DeVito) to open their own law office.

He and Deck form a dependable friendship as they work together to convict the bad guys and save the good guys.

Rudy is involved in cases ranging from an elderly woman and her questionable benefactors, a young woman named Kelly (Claire Danes) married to a physical abuser ("Melrose Place" veteran Andrew Shue lands this small role), and - what the movie specifically focuses on - a woman whose son is repeatedly denied insurance coverage for his potentially treatable Leukemia.

The lesson Rudy learns from his short-lived experience in the legal workplace is that many lawyers and clients are deceiving and only trying to rake in the money.

Even DeVito, his trusting partner, has a greedy side to him, as he tells Rudy that he is the rainmaker of wealth pouring from the sky when he wins court cases.

While there were conflicts in each of Rudy's three legal situations, there was no central climax in the movie, thus the continual buildup became tiresome and unexciting. Various pauses during close-up shots of characters were at times effective and definitely Coppola-esque, but some were a complete overdramatization of unnecessary tensions.

Perhaps the strangest absurdity of "The Rainmaker" is the unlikely and bizarre relationship between Rudy and Kelly. Rudy says he can't rid himself of the sympathy he has for her, but he discovers that he has fallen in love with Kelly. Suddenly he's involved with a girl in which their relationship is based on his pressure for her to get a divorce and to put an end to her husband's beatings.

Coppola tries to portray Rudy as the heroic lawyer, champion of direct contact with clients and one-on-one relationships.

If he's supposed to be a hero, shouldn't he follow the morally correct proverb, "two wrongs don't make a right"? In the film, however, he tampers with the jury selection process to get back at the defense lawyers who managed to bug his office.

Rudy decides not to tattle-tale their misdemeanor if they don't make a big deal about his bending of the legal rules.

So, as it turns out, his morals and honesty aren't that great after all, and he is unconvincing as any martyr in "The Rainmaker."

DeVito has a few funny lines and he is convincing in his character.

But Deck's (DeVito) klutziness is a little silly and odd, especially during emotional court scenes. He and Rudy are supposed to be inexperienced lawyers, not a couple of stooges.

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