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Matt Damon, Claire Danes, Jon Voight, Mary Kay Place, Mickey Rourke ... see more see more... , Danny DeVito , Dean Stockwell , Teresa Wright , Virginia Madsen , Andrew Shue , Red West , Johnny Whitworth , Wayne Emmons , Adrian Roberts , Roy Scheider , Randy Travis , Michael Girardin , Randall King , Justin Ashforth , Michael Keys Hall , Danny Glover , Michael Herr

Francis Ford Coppola is both scripter and director of this drama adapted from the John Grisham novel about broke, inexperienced Memphis law-school graduate Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon), ready to take any ... read more read more...job he can find. Signing on with slimy Bruiser Stone (Mickey Rourke), he learns ambulance-chasing tactics from Bruiser's leg man Deck Schifflet (Danny DeVito) and meets battered teen Kelly Riker (Claire Danes), abused by her husband (Andrew Shue). Baylor has his own clients -- friendly Miss Birdie (Teresa Wright), who has a large estate to dispose of, and desperate Dot Black (Mary Kay Place), whose son Donnie Ray (Johnny Whitworth) has terminal leukemia. Medical intervention could have spared his life, but the Great Benefit Insurance Company denied coverage, preventing Donnie Ray from getting a life-saving bone marrow transplant. Rudy finds a place to live in the apartment behind Miss Birdie's house. Deck and Rudy split from Bruiser to start their small firm. When they take on the Blacks' case, they go up against the insurance company's high-priced law firm and are continually thwarted by slick lawyer Leo F. Drummond (Jon Voight). Rudy's voiceover narration was scripted by Michael Herr. Filmed on location in Memphis. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

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71% liked it

36,772 ratings

Critics

82% liked it

45 critics

PG-13, 2 hr. 15 min.

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola

Release Date: November 20, 1997

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DVD Release Date: November 17, 1998

Stats: 1,038 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,038)

  • fb619846742
    April 9, 2009
    fb619846742
    A surprisingly poor fairy tale about a young, broke lawyer (Damon) who by luck of the draw happens to become the lead lawyer in a case against a wealthy insurance company that failed to cover a low-income family's son after it was determined the type of leukemia he had required a... read more bone marrow transplant. I was surprised this was directed by Coppola, one of the best directors all-time. What we have here is a common set-up (the young, naive lawyer vs. the big, bad insurance company), a needless subplot (Danes and Damon's affair, which amounts to nothing as far as to how the main story unfolds, not to mention a glaring plot hole near the end), and a very emotion-less ending for such an emotional story. Damon is very good, and the supporting cast couldn't be better (DeVito is a delight), but sadly it's wasted on a story that is really hard to believe.
  • matertenebraum
    December 21, 2008
    matertenebraum
    I have hardly ever seen a movie that is as good as the novel it is based upon, so I wasn't expecting this movie to be better than the novel. The story isn't as interesting in this movie, but the cast is great, the entertainment value is excellent, and veteran Director Francis For... read mored Coppola is behind the camera here. Coppola has directed movies like the epic mob masterpiece The Godfather and plenty of other great movies.

    This was released a couple of weeks before Matt Damon's huge hit Good Will Hunting, so this is one of his first big roles in a movie. Danny De Vito does a great job in adding plenty of humor to the movie, and Jon Voight adds a lot of dramatic effect to his character.

    The story follows a young lawyer who is representing the family of a boy with leukemia who could have had proper treatment, but couldn't because of a seedy insurance company. The movie pretty much follows the book, but the problem is that the book had a few great sub plots that seem absent from the movie, and one scene that happens in the middle of the movie happens in the end of the book. The scene is very intense, but it seems more like it belonged at the end of the movie, rather than the middle.

    This is worth watching, it is one of the best Grisham films, and there are plenty of great qualities in it.
  • thmtsang
    July 14, 2007
    thmtsang
    Interesting legal drama.
  • deano
    July 8, 2007
    deano
    One of my very favourite legal movie adaptation of John Grisham's bestseller. A very delight, emotional and exciting drama about an idealistic young attorney who takes on the case of a lifetime from start to finish.
  • crossbladezero
    January 1, 2012
    crossbladezero
    What in the world is a rainmaker? Seriously, I was just waiting for that big climactic sequence in which Matt Damon stands up, the music swells, and then he starts marching and bouncing around a fire, and then it would start pouring in the courtroom, and in the midst of all this ... read morechaos, a little girl stands up and says "And how can this be? For he is the Kizatz Haderach! Yeah, that's what we need; to make the ending to "Dune" more forced. Hey, it wouldn't be the cheesiest thing I've seen in a courtroom drama film; not since "To Kill a Mockingbird". Yes, I said it, and don't deny that you weren't thinking it around the time that girl started freaking out in the middle of her monologue to Atticus and then "ran" out into the crowd. If I was a judge, the moment she raised her voice, the gavel would come down, and by the time she ran out into the audience, I would bring down the gavel again, only this time, on her head. The courtroom is no place for drama, and that's why courtroom dramas are at their most boring when we're actually in the courtroom, unless, of course, you look at this film, where "every" scene, in or out of the courtroom, is equally boring.

    Francis Coppola is a highly respectable, very strong director that broke ground with his filmmaking sensibilities in the 1970s... and now that it's the '90s, he's just gotten a little bit dull. No, I'm kidding... he's always been a little dull, and that fact certainly goes unchanged here, for although the film is never tedious, it's consistently slow. That, combined with many rather messily-handled subplots, create lulls in engagement, which of course leads to convolution. Now, these are all flaws found in a deal of Coppola's films, even "The Godfather" films. However, no matter how slow or how convoluted films get, they're always comfortably-paced. Now, we're not looking at "Munich", where most every second of an overlong film isn't just palpable, but even slower, but the pacing is certainly off, and if you're going to have a slow, sometimes unengaging film that runs a palpable 136 minutes, then you better have the goods to back that up. Well, sure enough, through all this film's faults, it hits in enough places to not only help you through the film, but make it pretty darn enjoyable.

    We give a lot of credit to Coppola as a solid director, but it seems as though we don't give enough credit as a writer, because the guy's good, always adding a lot of snap and intrigue in the dialogue, and this dialogue is no different. The film hits way too many slow points, but it's not hard to make it through them, because there's so much sparkle and charm in the dialogue, but when drama comes into play, the snap in the dialogue is used to really slickly drive points across. However, no matter how snappy dialogue is, they're just words on paper and matter not if they don't have people delivering them snapily. Well, sure enough, the performers bring the charisma, from the always slickly charming Matt Damon, to, of course, everyone's favorite short, balding Jersey-Italian comedian, Mr. Danny DeVito. Still, through all of the charm and comic relief, this is still a drama, and it's not only the charm of the dialogue that changes to support the more serious moments, because the performers really know how to work that charisma. Few performances are terribly tremendous, but most everyone delivers subtle, strong perfromances that play their parts in this machine well. Matt Damon particularly stands out, portraying the Rudy Baylor character with a strong, but still rather subtle aura of humanity that deeply immerses you in his situation, making him a solid avatar for the audience, yet there is still a lot that's mysterious and unstable about this man faced with realities more harsh than he ever expected, and you're often on the edge of your seat, wondering when he will break, making him a generally strong lead.

    Overall, the film is as slow as your usual Francis Coppola film, only with a little more messy subplot handling and a slower pacing, but you're still kept by, if nothing else, the snappy dialogue that supports our performers' charm the breaks up some pretty solid drama that is also carried by the performers, particularly Matt Damon, who's strong performance as his own man, as well as an effective avatar for the audience helps in making "The Rainmaker" a genuinely enjoyable experience.

    3/5 - Good
  • crazydannielle16
    September 8, 2009
    crazydannielle16
    It was a very powerful movie with a great message. The acting was great. It was funny, too!
  • michaelcorleone
    December 10, 2008
    michaelcorleone
    In terms of Francis Ford Coppola films, this one's a bit underwhelming... but as a straightforward court drama, it works efficiently enough.
  • irisheyes686
    August 22, 2009
    irisheyes686
    Excellent movie. Great acting, great story - just awesome all the way around.
  • trisarahtops22
    June 2, 2009
    trisarahtops22
    This was an excellent movie. The story was great and the casting was done brilliantly. Definately a must-see movie.
  • SunilJawahir
    February 28, 2009
    SunilJawahir
    A ho-hum kind of law movie.

View All The Rainmaker Reviews

Critic Reviews

Todd McCarthy
June 9, 2008
Todd McCarthy, Variety

Coppola has never been particularly known for his comic touch, but here he seems bent on leavening the melodrama with as many laughs as possible, and they are generally honest and well-earned. Full Review

Ruthe Stein
June 18, 2002
Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle

Coppola adapted the novel himself, and he's done a good job of paring it down. Full Review

Jack Mathews
February 14, 2001
Jack Mathews, Los Angeles Times

Coppola has infused The Rainmaker with enough humor, character, honest emotion and storytelling style to make it one of the year's most entertaining movies. Full Review

Charles Taylor
January 1, 2000
Charles Taylor, Salon.com

Satisfactory mainstream entertainment, with a handful of major actors in juicy minor roles tossed in for good measure. Full Review

Mike Clark
January 1, 2000
Mike Clark, USA Today

Voight proves again what a great character actor he's become by stealing the film as a country club-type defense lawyer with a julep tongue.

James Berardinelli
January 1, 2000
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

The intelligence and subtlety of The Rainmaker took me by surprise. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Francis Ford Coppola, who wrote and directed the film, has made the most of Grisham's ground-level realism. Full Review

Janet Maslin
January 1, 2000
Janet Maslin, New York Times

Despite Mr. Coppola's taste for moodier and more eclectic material, this mainstream opportunity pays off. Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson
May 26, 2006
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

The Rainmaker is easily the best of the Grisham movies so far, and it has touches of excellence, but it's a routine work. Full Review

Geoff Andrew
February 9, 2006
Geoff Andrew, Time Out

This competent, anonymous legal drama (scripted by Michael Herr) is the best John Grisham adaptation yet. Full Review

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  • This movie stars Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn and is also the name of an Iron Maiden song. Which movie is it?  Answer »
  • The Rainmaker, The Pelican Brief, The Runaway Jury, and The Firm are all films based on novel written by whom?  Answer »
  • which film did not star katherine hepburn and spencer tracy?  Answer »
  • Matt Damon played a lawyer who was trying to protect Claire Danes from an abusive husband, what was the movie called?   Answer »
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