The Rainmaker (1997 film)

For other uses, see The Rainmaker (disambiguation).

The Rainmaker
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Francis Ford Coppola
Produced by	Michael Douglas Fred Fuchs Steven Reuther
Screenplay by	Francis Ford Coppola
Based on	The Rainmaker by John Grisham
Starring	Matt Damon Claire Danes Jon Voight Mary Kay Place Mickey Rourke Danny DeVito
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Cinematography	John Toll
Edited by	Melissa Kent Barry Malkin
Production companies	American Zoetrope Constellation Films
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	November 21, 1997 (1997-11-21)
Running time	135 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$40 million
Box office	$45.9 million

The Rainmaker is a 1997 American legal drama film written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Matt Damon, based on John Grisham's 1995 novel of the same name.

Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, Claire Danes, Jon Voight, Roy Scheider, Mickey Rourke, Virginia Madsen and Mary Kay Place also star. This was the final film appearance of Academy Award-winning actress Teresa Wright.

Plot

Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) was brought up in a slum. His father, who was a severe alcoholic, abused him and his mother. After studying at Austin Peay State University, Rudy, who has an interest in social justice and civil rights, decides to attend law school. When he graduates from the University of Memphis State Law School, he, unlike most of his fellow grads, has no high-paying employment lined up. He is forced to apply for part-time positions while he serves drinks at a Memphis bar.

Desperate for a job, he reluctantly goes to an interview with J. Lyman "Bruiser" Stone (Mickey Rourke), a ruthless and corrupt but successful personal injury lawyer, who makes him an associate. To earn his fee, Rudy is turned into an ambulance chaser, required to hunt for potential clients at a local hospital.

Soon he meets Deck Shifflet (Danny DeVito), a less-than-ethical former insurance assessor turned paralegal, who has gone to law school but failed the bar exam six times. Deck is resourceful in gathering information, and practically an expert on insurance lawsuits.

Rudy manages to get just one case, concerning insurance bad faith. It may be worth several million dollars in damages, which appeals to him because he is about to declare himself bankrupt. He rents an apartment above the garage in the home of elderly Miss Birdsong (Teresa Wright), a client whose will he has been drafting.

Bruiser is suspected of racketeering, and his offices are raided by the police and FBI. Not knowing what else to do, Rudy and Deck set up, without so much as a secretary for help, a two-man practice. They file a bad faith suit on behalf of a middle-aged couple, Dot and Buddy Black, whose 22-year-old son Donny Ray (Johnny Whitworth) is going to die from leukemia. Donny Ray would most likely have been saved by a bone marrow transplant had his medical claim not been denied by Great Benefit, the family's insurance carrier.

Although Rudy passes the Tennessee bar exam, he has never argued a case before a judge and jury. He finds himself up against a group of experienced and devious lawyers from a large firm that is headed by Leo F. Drummond (Jon Voight), a showman attorney who uses unscrupulous tactics to win his cases.

The original judge assigned to the case, Harvey Hale (Dean Stockwell), is set to dismiss it because he sees it as one of many so-called "lottery" cases that slow the judicial process. But after Hale suffers a fatal heart attack, a far more sympathetic judge, Tyrone Kipler (Danny Glover), takes over the case. Kipler, a former civil rights attorney, immediately denies the insurance company's petition for dismissal.

While preparing his case, Rudy gets to know a young woman whom he met at the hospital, Kelly Riker (Claire Danes), a battered wife whose husband, Cliff (Andrew Shue), has beaten her so savagely with a baseball bat that she must be hospitalized. After a particularly violent attack, Rudy persuades Kelly, to whom he is attracted, to file for divorce.

Going to Kelly's home to pack her belongings, Rudy and Kelly are confronted by a bat-wielding Cliff. After Cliff is injured in the fight that follows, Kelly insists Rudy leave. From outside, Rudy can hear Cliff being hit with the baseball bat. To protect Rudy from being implicated in Cliff's death, Kelly tells the police she killed her husband in self-defense. Rudy promises to defend Kelly if the case goes to trial, but the district attorney declines to prosecute, knowing Kelly would never be convicted.

Donny Ray dies, but not before giving a video deposition. The case goes to trial, where Drummond capitalizes on Rudy's inexperience. He gets vital testimony by Rudy's key witness, former Great Benefit employee Jackie Lemanczyk (Virginia Madsen), stricken from the record, and attempts to discredit Donny Ray's mother (Mary Kay Place). Due to Rudy's single-minded determination and skillful cross-examination of Great Benefit's unctuous president Wilfred Keeley (Roy Scheider), the jury finds for the plaintiff with a monetary award far exceeding all expectations.

It is a great triumph for Rudy and Deck, at least until Keeley attempts to flee the country and Great Benefit declares itself bankrupt, thus allowing it to avoid paying punitive damages to the Blacks, as well as any future judgments in class-action lawsuits. There is no payout for the grieving parents and no fee for Rudy or Deck. Dot Black expresses satisfaction that at least they put Great Benefit out of business, and that it is now unable to hurt other families like hers.

Convinced his success will create unrealistic expectations for future clients, Rudy abandons his practice to instead teach law with a focus on ethical behavior. He leaves town with Kelly, wanting to retain a low profile and protect Kelly from any possible retribution by Cliff's vengeful relatives. He leaves the legal profession after just one successful case.

Cast

• Matt Damon as Rudy Baylor
• Claire Danes as Kelly Riker
• Jon Voight as Leo F. Drummond
• Mary Kay Place as Dot Black
• Mickey Rourke as J. Lyman "Bruiser" Stone
• Danny DeVito as Deck Shifflet
• Dean Stockwell as Judge Harvey Hale
• Virginia Madsen as Jackie Lemanczyk
• Randy Travis as Billy Porter
• Roy Scheider as Wilfred Keeley
• Red West as Buddy Black
• Johnny Whitworth as Donny Ray Black
• Andrew Shue as Cliff Riker
• Teresa Wright as "Miss Birdie" Birdsong
• Danny Glover (uncredited) as Judge Tyrone Kipler
• Claire Robinson as girl at table

Differences from the novel

The film follows the book in most details, but changes the order of events: in the book, the confrontation ending with Rudy's self-defense killing of Kelly's abusive husband occurs after the end of the trial, not during. Also, the film leaves out an important piece of information from the book that was a central point of Rudy's case: the fact that the leukemia victim had an identical twin, which would have made a transplant virtually certain to work as it would have been a perfect genetic match.

The film portrays Rudy's decision to leave town with Kelly as being primarily out of a desire to remain low profile and protect Kelly, but the book depicts a much greater degree of disillusionment with the legal system and its ability to be manipulated for personal gain.

The book also highlights the questionable financial viability of Rudy's firm as the failure to extract any income from the Great Benefit case greatly undermines its earning ability.

Leo F. Drummond, the defense lawyer, is a more manipulative character in the film. While his depiction in the book is of a stuffy big firm lawyer, in the movie he adopts a more predatory attitude toward Rudy.

Release

Box office

On its opening weekend, the film ranked third behind Anastasia and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, earning $10,626,507. The film grossed $45,916,769 in the domestic box office, exceeding its estimated production budget of $40 million, but still was considered a disappointment for a film adaptation of a Grisham novel, particularly in comparison to The Firm, which was made for roughly the same amount but grossed more than six times its budget.

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with the film earning an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9 out of 10. The site's consensus states: "Invigorated by its talented cast and Francis Ford Coppola's strong direction, The Rainmaker is a satisfying legal drama -- and arguably the best of Hollywood's many John Grisham adaptations." On Metacritic, the film has a 72 out of 100 rating based on 19 critics, indicating "generally positive reviews".

Roger Ebert gave The Rainmaker three stars out of four, remarking: "I have enjoyed several of the movies based on Grisham novels ... but I've usually seen the storyteller's craft rather than the novelist's art being reflected. ... By keeping all of the little people in focus, Coppola shows the variety of a young lawyer's life, where every client is necessary and most of them need a lot more than a lawyer." James Berardinelli also gave the film three stars out of four, saying that "the intelligence and subtlety of The Rainmaker took me by surprise" and that the film "stands above any other filmed Grisham adaptation". Grisham said of the film, "To me it's the best adaptation of any of [my books]. ... I love the movie. It's so well done.". Review aggregator Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 72 based on 19 reviews indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

Nominations

Blockbuster Entertainment Awards

• Favorite Actor — Drama (Matt Damon)
• Favorite Supporting Actor — Drama (Danny DeVito)
• Favorite Supporting Actress — Drama (Claire Danes)

Golden Globe Awards

• Best Supporting Actor (Jon Voight)

NAACP Image Awards

• Best Supporting Actor — Motion Picture (Danny Glover)

Satellite Awards

• Best Supporting Actor — Motion Picture Drama (Danny DeVito)

USC Scripter Award

• USC Scripter Award (John Grisham and Francis Ford Coppola)

External links

• The Rainmaker at IMDb
• The Rainmaker at Box Office Mojo
• The Rainmaker at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Rainmaker at Metacritic