Word: coppolas
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Following in the footsteps of his friend Matthew McConaughey, Damon landed the lead in The Rainmaker--a Francis Ford Coppola film. Then, the script which he and his best friend Ben Affleck wrote together, Good Will Hunting, was finally picked up by Mira-max--the brilliant Gus Van Sant signed on to direct soon after. And next summer, Damon will headline in Steven Spielberg's World War II epic Saving Private Ryan...
...gotten to work with Coppola, Van Sant, Spielberg. Anybody else that you really want to work with...
Francis Ford Coppola missteps in a heavy-handed moralistic mess that has none of the storytelling grace he's displayed on happier occasions. In fact, he's succeeded in making John Grisham--the king of popcorn thrillers--lethally boring. There is no shameless entertainment here, no chance to be swept up in instant thrills. Instead, we see Matt Damon lost in two hours of disjointed storytelling without a touch of drama...
...Coppola's venture into the mainstream is a difficult one to watch, mainly because we know what he can be capable of. There is none of the storytelling grace that was a trademark of his earlier pictures. With Jack and now John Grisham's The Rainmaker, there is the tragic possibility that Coppola is in a disconcerting decline. Indeed, there is a sad moment in Rainmaker when Rudy is introduced to the sleazy lawyer Bruiser (Mickey Rourke). Bruiser's office is appropriately gloomy and uninviting--there is a tank of menacing sharks stationed behind his desk. We smile...
...failure (if one must pinpoint a single cause) is in the attempt to imbue contemporary stereotypes with a sense of drama. Coppola has attempted to transform a John Grisham thriller into a series of quirky character studies. There is no doubt that the author will watch this new adaptation and smile radiantly as the events unfold incoherently on screen. As long as directors keep trying to top each other in an effort to make a semi-competent film, he'll keep writing his crowd-pleasing prose and run all the way to the bank...