The Chamber

Rating:
Summary: Acting that ought to knock anyone's socks off
Review: "The Chamber" is long, quiet and infinitely better the second time around, which makes it pretty seriously good indeed. Whatever you think of the plot and the completely salient points it makes on the subject of capital punishment the true joys of "The Chamber" are the performances of Faye Dunaway and Gene Hackman each of which are nothing short of astonishing. Dunaway's creation of Cayhall's daughter is as powerful, multi-layered and profound as anything she has ever done. Gene Hackman deserves to be inducted into the great actors hall of fame for his portrayal of Sam Cayhall. As his execution draws closer his moods swing through the gamut of human emotion creating a complete and almost unbearably real but flawed human person facing certain death. A best actor oscar should have been given for this performance. If acting is your job or something that you see all too rarely ignore the carping critics who found their sensibilities rubbed the wrong way and get "The Chamber" it improves with each viewing and says some very deep things about life and exactly what it means to be human. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A Legal Thriller That Doesn't Focus On The Issues.
Review: "The Chamber" is a poorly written thriller thatpretends to be serious. The plot is so small, that it's bloated to thepoint where it uses the subject of racism as nothing but the elements of entertainment. This film doesn't show racism for what it is, sure it shows the KKK as criminal, secret and venomous, but those have always been it's selling points. "The Chamber" would work better if it tossed away racism because it doesn't make it into an issue here, only into a form of entertainment like the entertainment we get off of Rambo or a Schwarzennegger flick. How disappointing that instead of raising real thought-provoking issues, "The Chamber" is just boring and uninteresting. And to think that idiot John Grisham actually wants to take Oliver Stone to court over a great movie that does raise issues and serves as a satire of society: "Natural Born Killers."

Rating:
Summary: Acting that ought to knock anyone's socks off
Review: "The Chamber" is long, quiet and infinitely better the second time around, which makes it pretty seriously good indeed. Whatever you think of the plot and the completely salient points it makes on the subject of capital punishment the true joys of "The Chamber" are the performances of Faye Dunaway and Gene Hackman each of which are nothing short of astonishing. Dunaway's creation of Cayhall's daughter is as powerful, multi-layered and profound as anything she has ever done. Gene Hackman deserves to be inducted into the great actors hall of fame for his portrayal of Sam Cayhall. As his execution draws closer his moods swing through the gamut of human emotion creating a complete and almost unbearably real but flawed human person facing certain death. A best actor oscar should have been given for this performance. If acting is your job or something that you see all too rarely ignore the carping critics who found their sensibilities rubbed the wrong way and get "The Chamber" it improves with each viewing and says some very deep things about life and exactly what it means to be human. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Don't bother
Review: About halfway through the book,"The Chamber", I discovered that the movie would be airing on television. It's pretty difficult to review a film that can barely hold your attention, steadily, for no more than half an hour. It lacks the gripping drama and suspense of the book and of other Grisham novel adaptations like "The Firm" and most especially "A Time to Kill".

With the exception of Gene Hackman as death row inmate Sam Cayhall, the casting is what most hurts this movie. Chris O'Donnell may have been the big "it" guy as far as young actors at the time this movie was made, but he just can't hack it in the role of a lawyer. Especially one who is defending his grandfather on death row. You'd expect a lot more emotion and charisma. O'Donnell's portrayal lacks this natural emotion and frankly, the confidence needed in general to be a convincing attorney. Lela Rochon is rarely good as anything but eye candy and since that is not her role here, she doesn't fit. In the most odd and questionable casting move, football player Bo Jackson as the death row warden? They shouldn't have adapted this great novel into a film, at least not at a time when the field of young actors was so scarce and undesirable.

The storyline is great but in the film it is so cut down that you're best off to just stick with the book version.

Rating:
Summary: Needs a severe re-write
Review: As a fan of Faye Dunaway, I was thrilled with her return to the Big Screen in a Big Movie. What a bust! She was only in a couple of scenes. She did a great job, her scenes were top-notch, but the rest of the movie was sort of a bore. Her few scenes couldn't salvage it either. Also, no matter how young and good she looks, she can't pass for Gene Hackman's daughter. Not even for a second. They should have redone the script to make her Hackman's sister, that would have been a little more believable. Better yet, they should have rewritten the script without Hackman to make Dunaway the prisoner on death row and made her and Hackman's character into one female character, hers. That way, her character would have been the lead and we would have seen more of her. Plus, she could have done some gritty prison drama scenes to get her that second Oscar she rightfully deserves. Chris O'Donnell's part should have been slashed to almost nothing, with Dunaway doing her own legal defense, representation, and investigation in the movie. Now that would have been A+. Just a thought.

Rating:
Summary: Very good plot.
Review: Chris O'Donnel is Adam Hall, a young lawyer with a horrible secret - his grandfather is on death row for a nearly unspeakable act of domestic terrorism. In an act obviously inspired by the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham Church which claimed the lives of "four little girls", Sam Cayhall (Hackman) bombs the office of a Jewish civil-rights lawyer. On death row years later - not for killing the lawyer, who was simply crippled in the blast, but for killing the lawyer's two sons who happened to be there that morning - Cayhall is as unregenerate as possible. A long-time KKK foot soldier, Cayhall is ready to go to the grave for what he did, though we soon learn that Cayhall underestimated the effects closer to home. Cayhall's son committed suicide in shame, and O'Donnel had to change his name to avoid being labeled the spawn of public enemy. As an attorney, O'Donnel risks all to save the old man from a final walk to the death penalty. Like his grandfather, Hall ignores the risks to those close to him - his aunt (Faye Dunaway) seems well adjusted enough until Hall discusses revisiting the family shame, throwing her into a bender. To save the old man, who seems as virulent in his bigotry as you'd want to imagine, Hall journeys south where a polite veneer covers up a racially charged landscape that hasn't changed much since 1963. Though hoping to save his grandfather through the courts, Hall resorts to some detective work as well. Cayhall's guilt is a no-brainer...but his being solely culpable is another matter. While Cayhall chides Adam for putting too much effort into being a junior detective, the boy finds that the political forces that put Cayhall on death row alone were not only very real, but remain as much today.

This was a promising idea - a film that tackled southern racism from a far less sympathetic perspective than "A Time to Kill" (instead of an enraged father, we have an old grand-dragon), and with racists who don't seem as cartoonish as those in that movie, so it was far more dissappointing when it obviously failed. Hard pressed to make Hackman a character we'd want to save, it eases up on his racial rantings, turning him into just another crazy old man (most of his lines are spent shouting). There's also the plot - though we know that racism was a pervasive problem hardly invented by or emobodied in Cayhall, we never get the idea that there was a larger conspiracy out there. Sure, we have the accomplice (Raymond Barry), but he's barely a screen presence, and he never connects to a larger conspiracy, and there's nothing to show Hall's progress in revealing it, and in the end....well, let's just say that there isn't any. Instead, the film gives up trying to choose between being about either undercurrents of southern racism that never disappeared or about Cayhall's redemption. Instead, it just fades to black.

Rating:
Summary: dead white male spouting
Review: Chris O'Donnel is Adam Hall, a young lawyer with a horrible secret - his grandfather is on death row for a nearly unspeakable act of domestic terrorism. In an act obviously inspired by the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham Church which claimed the lives of "four little girls", Sam Cayhall (Hackman) bombs the office of a Jewish civil-rights lawyer. On death row years later - not for killing the lawyer, who was simply crippled in the blast, but for killing the lawyer's two sons who happened to be there that morning - Cayhall is as unregenerate as possible. A long-time KKK foot soldier, Cayhall is ready to go to the grave for what he did, though we soon learn that Cayhall underestimated the effects closer to home. Cayhall's son committed suicide in shame, and O'Donnel had to change his name to avoid being labeled the spawn of public enemy. As an attorney, O'Donnel risks all to save the old man from a final walk to the death penalty. Like his grandfather, Hall ignores the risks to those close to him - his aunt (Faye Dunaway) seems well adjusted enough until Hall discusses revisiting the family shame, throwing her into a bender. To save the old man, who seems as virulent in his bigotry as you'd want to imagine, Hall journeys south where a polite veneer covers up a racially charged landscape that hasn't changed much since 1963. Though hoping to save his grandfather through the courts, Hall resorts to some detective work as well. Cayhall's guilt is a no-brainer...but his being solely culpable is another matter. While Cayhall chides Adam for putting too much effort into being a junior detective, the boy finds that the political forces that put Cayhall on death row alone were not only very real, but remain as much today.

This was a promising idea - a film that tackled southern racism from a far less sympathetic perspective than "A Time to Kill" (instead of an enraged father, we have an old grand-dragon), and with racists who don't seem as cartoonish as those in that movie, so it was far more dissappointing when it obviously failed. Hard pressed to make Hackman a character we'd want to save, it eases up on his racial rantings, turning him into just another crazy old man (most of his lines are spent shouting). There's also the plot - though we know that racism was a pervasive problem hardly invented by or emobodied in Cayhall, we never get the idea that there was a larger conspiracy out there. Sure, we have the accomplice (Raymond Barry), but he's barely a screen presence, and he never connects to a larger conspiracy, and there's nothing to show Hall's progress in revealing it, and in the end....well, let's just say that there isn't any. Instead, the film gives up trying to choose between being about either undercurrents of southern racism that never disappeared or about Cayhall's redemption. Instead, it just fades to black.

Rating:
Summary: The Chamber
Review: Chris O'Donnell stars as Adam Hall, a 26 years old attorney whose father committed suicide when Adam was 10 years old because Adam's grandfather (Gene Hackman stars as Sam Cayhall) killed Joe Lincoln and Adam's father felt himself guilty since he hadn't stopped his father and handed his father a shotgun.

At the burial of Adam Hall's father, Adam knew his grandfather was still alive but involved in a terrorist attack that two Jewish children died and Adam's grandfather had been sentenced to die by 28 days, in the Mississippi gas chamber and to no surprise, Sam is Adam's first client. However, Adam was told that's a case with nil winning chance. Even so, Adam was determined to save his grandfather from death penalty but time's running short.

During the investigation, Sam revealed his KKK member's identity to Adam and the fact that the jury is certained Sam is guilty. And thanks to the two dead children are Jewish, Sam was named as racist. Also, Sam told Adam that no matter what Adam would do, Adam couldn't save Sam from execution.

Adam has tried his best, found Rollie Wedge to be guilty and Adam tried to claim Sam is insane, but these didn't affect the death penaltiy to be executed and Sam died in calm without final words.

Even it's a tedious film, I've learnt something from it - to some extent, law is not always a reliable tool of justice because evidence may give us an unfair, bad opinion of the suspects and also there's no absolute evil.

Rating:
Summary: LONG BORING NOVEL = SHORT MOVIE THAT BOMBED
Review: Chris O'Donnell, Gene Hackman, Faye Dunaway star in this terrible boring movie based on John Grisham's novel.

O'Donnell stars as idealistic young attorney Adam Hall who takes on the death row clemency case of his onetime klansman grandfather, Sam Cayhall (Hackman). With just 28 days before the execution, Adam sets out to retrace the events leading to the crime for which Sam was convicted. As the impending death sentence looms closer, Adam works quickly to uncover the family's history for any - hidden clues.

There is a serious problem with the book and movie, the book is long and so boring and it's sad to say a bestseller. The movie is short and a obvious bomb. Usually John Grisham books are great, thrilling suspensful fun. While John Grisham's movies are long and good, there at least 150 minutes this one was 1 hour and 53 minutes. What happend here? I'll tell you a lousy novel equals a lousy movie.

Rating:
Summary: BLUE GENE
Review: Gene Hackman's electrifying performance dominates this adaptation of John Grisham's best selling novel. Hackman portrays Sam Cayhall, a man who's been on death row for sixteen years for the bombing of a lawyer's office that resulted in the death of the lawyer's two children. Cayhall is a vile man, who has lived a life of hatred and prejudice, the result of generations of such bigoted ancestors. Enter Chris O'Donnell as his young grandson, who is a lawyer and wants to reopen the case and spare his grandfather the gas chamber. What ensues is a painful exploration of hatred, prejudice and a dysfunctional family.
I liked the movie, in spite of its several flaws. Hackman is phenomenal, and Chris O'Donnell does a good job as the naively innocent, but determined, young barrister. Faye Dunaway offers wonderful support as Hackman's estranged daughter who has lived a life of secrecy and guilt. Lela Rochon, Raymond Barry, David Marshall Grant and Robert Prosky offer fine support too.
I found myself involved in the movie, and feel it didn't offer any easy answers. Hackman is a guilty man, but his performance is so well doone that one can't help but feel sorry for the life he has chosen, and the life he has sacrificed.
I think it's well worth viewing.