The Rainmaker (1997)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Rudy Baylor	Matt Damon
Kelly Riker	Claire Danes	½
Leo F. Drummond	Jon Voight
Dot Black	Mary Kay Place	½
J. Lyman "Bruiser" Stone	Mickey Rourke	½
Deck Shifflet	Danny DeVito
Judge Harvey Hale	Dean Stockwell
Jackie Lemanczyk	Virginia Madsen
Billy Porter	Randy Travis
Wilfred Keeley	Roy Scheider
Buddy Black	Red West
Donny Ray Black	Johnny Whitworth
Cliff Riker	Andrew Shue
"Miss Birdie" Birdsong	Teresa Wright	½
Judge Tyrone Kipler	Danny Glover	½

Review

This star-studded courtroom drama written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola is detailed and comprehensive in its treatment of the material, but completely lacks subtlety and narrative drive. As adapted from John Grisham's novel, which shall remain unassessed here, The Rainmaker is a sluggish sentimentalist of a movie, seemingly driven by its own self-righteousness. The characters are far too one-dimensional and/or dichotomic and the script is too poorly written for us to really care for the story. As far as legal dramas go, The Rainmaker feels more like a second-rate TV series than a wide cinematic release by one of the greatest directors of our time. It marked the beginning of the end for Coppola. For a far more nuanced and poignant courtroom title released in the same year, watch David E. Kelley's television show "The Practice" instead.