The Client

Based on John Grisham’s novel, The Client details the chaos that ensues after a scrappy kid (Brad Renfro’s Mark Sway) witnesses a mob lawyer commit suicide and is consequently forced to hire a fledgling lawyer (Susan Sarandon’s Reggie Love) to represent him. Filmmaker Joel Schumacher, working from a script by Akiva Goldsman and Robert Getchell, does a fantastic job of immediately luring the viewer into the somewhat overlong proceedings, as The Client kicks off with an impressively riveting opening detailing the aforementioned suicide and Mark’s initial efforts at protecting himself – with the effectiveness of this stretch heightened by Renfro’s stirring performance and Schumacher’s slick, cinematic visuals. (The engaging atmosphere is certainly perpetuated by the cavalcade of familiar faces within the stacked supporting cast, including Tommy Lee Jones, J.T. Walsh, Mary-Louise Parker, William H. Macy, Anthony LaPaglia, and Will Patton.) It’s clear, then, that The Client eventually does segue into an entertaining yet erratically-paced midsection, although, by that same token, this portion of the proceedings has admittedly been suffused with a number of pointedly engaging sequences and interludes. (There is, for example, a superb scene wherein Sarandon’s Reggie lays out the details of her tragic past to Mark.) And although the picture does succumb to a few needless action-movie cliches in its climax, including Mark and Reggie’s decision to explore a dangerous locale without any police assistance, The Client nevertheless (and for the most part) comes off as a solid adaptation of Grisham’s above-average legal thriller that benefits from the efforts of its all-star assortment of performers.

*** out of ****

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