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The Firm (1993)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 6.2/10
Reviews Counted: 51
Fresh: 39 | Rotten: 12

No consensus yet.

Average Rating: 5/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 5

No consensus yet.

audience

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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 63,847

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Movie Info

In this drama, based on the best-selling novel by John Grisham, Mitch McDeer (Tom Cruise) is a young man from a poor Southern family who has struggled through Harvard Law School to graduate fifth in his class. Mitch is entertaining offers from major firms in New York and Chicago, but when Memphis-based Bendini, Lambert, & Locke offer him a 20 percent higher salary than the best offer he's received, in addition to an enticing variety of perks and fringe benefits, he decides to sign on and remain

R, 2 hr. 34 min.

Mystery & Suspense, Drama

Directed By: Sydney Pollack

In Theaters: Jun 1, 1993 Wide

On DVD: May 23, 2000

Paramount Pictures

The Firm Trailer & Photos

Cast

Tom Cruise
Mitch McDeere
Jeanne Tripplehorn
Abby McDeere
Gene Hackman
Avery Tolar
Hal Holbrook
Oliver Lambert
Terry Kinney
Lamar Quinn
Ed Harris
Wayne Tarrance
Holly Hunter
Tammy Hemphill
Wilford Brimley
William Devasher
David Strathairn
Ray McDeere
Gary Busey
Eddie Lomax
Steven Hill
F. Denton Voyles
Tobin Bell
The Nordic Man
Barbara Garrick
Kay Quinn
Jerry Hardin
Royce McKnight
Paul Calderon
Thomas Richie
Jerry Weintraub
Sonny Capps
Karina Lombard
Young Woman on Beach
Joey Anderson
Ruth
Rebecca Glenn
Young Woman at Patio Ba...
Greg Goossen
Vietnam Veteran
David A. Kimball
Randall Dunbar
Margo Martindale
Nina Huff
Dean Norris
Squat Man
Afemo Omilami
Cotton Truck Driver
Clint Smith
Cotton Truck Driver
Paul Sorvino
Joey Morolto "uncredite...
Debbie Turner
Rental Agent
Lou Walker
Frank Mulholland
James White
Singer at Hyatt
Bart Whiteman
Dutch
John Beal
Nathan Locke
David Dwyer
Prison Guard
Donald Jones
Attorney
Mark W. Johnson
FBI Agent
Tommy Cresswell
Wally Hudson
Jonathan E. Kaplan
Lawyer Recruiter

Critic Reviews for The Firm

All Critics (52) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (42) | Rotten (12) | DVD (16)

Tom Cruise heads a tony cast in a best-seller movie that is firm at the start and infirm by the end.

May 26, 2008 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine

| Comment

Richard Corliss

TIME Magazine

Top Critic

The Firm amusingly satirizes the New Traditionalist aspirations of today's young urban elite -- not so much the lifestyle itself as the illusion of utter security it represents.

May 26, 2008 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly

| Comment

Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Top Critic

A smooth adaptation of John Grisham's giant bestseller that is destined to be one of the summer's strong audience pleasers.

May 26, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety

| Comment

Todd McCarthy

Variety

Top Critic

The movie is extremely long (two hours and 34 minutes) and so slow that by the end you feel as if you've been standing up even if you've been sitting down.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comment

Vincent Canby

New York Times

Top Critic

The book moved at turbo speed. At two and a half hours, the movie crawls.

May 12, 2001 Comment

Peter Travers

Rolling Stone

Top Critic

With a screenplay that developed the story more clearly, this might have been a superior movie, instead of just a good one with some fine performances.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times

| Comment

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

...a tense, thoroughly enjoyable suspense thriller. (Blu-ray edition)

May 19, 2011 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis

| Comment

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

...pits Cruise against the world, with only his character's wit.

May 19, 2011 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis

| Comment

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

Too-long Grisham thriller is full of adult themes.

December 18, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

| Comment

Heather Boerner

Common Sense Media

This is a professional machine of a movie that compresses huge amounts of information into its two and a half hours of screen time. But it's so weighed down by detail, it fails to generate any real suspense.

May 26, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

TV Guide's Movie Guide

The first in a long series of unsatisfying Grisham adaptations.

May 26, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment

Film4

This legal thriller is smartly directed and well scripted (by some of Hollywood's top writers), but, alas, Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise, playing yet another variation of his screen image.

July 15, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

| Comment

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

What starts out as interesting becomes increasingly hokey and silly -- Wilford Brimley is ludicrously cast as the firm's senior hit man -- where it should be intense and suspenseful.

March 4, 2006 Comment

Chuck O'Leary

FulvueDrive-in.com

Adorning the film, in supporting roles, are its saving graces.

January 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comment

Wally Hammond

Time Out

Even Tom Cruise is a winner in a Pollack-Grisham collaboration.

November 7, 2005 Comment

Jules Brenner

Cinema Signals

Cruise at the top of his game

March 23, 2005 Comment

Clint Morris

Moviehole

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Firm

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I was looking forward to seeing this film, and I thought it was going to be an excellent thriller. After viewing it, I thought it was a good thriller at best. Based on John Grisham's bestseller, The Firm is a fairly entertaining thriller which mixes dramatic elements. Tom Cruise plays newcomer lawyer Mitch Mcdeere who

July 4, 2011

Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski

Super Reviewer

If there is ever one movie that showcases the hotshot version of Tom Cruise, it's The Firm. I'll admit that I never really saw a whole lot in it when I saw it for the first time, but it's really grown on me over time. Tom Cruise's performance alone should be worth anyone's time; it's extremely multi-dimensional and he

December 3, 2009

Conner Rainwater

Super Reviewer

The Firm Quotes

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