Word: sways
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...CLIENT, an 11-year-old boy named Mark Sway (Brad Renfro) must get out of dire straits on his own because his father is long gone and his mother is slatternly and foolish. In Angels in the Outfield, an 11-year-old boy named Roger (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is left in a foster home by his feckless father and requires the intervention of a heavenly host to help him. In North, an 11- year-old boy named North (Elijah Wood) becomes so disaffected from his parents that he chooses "free agency" and spends the rest of the picture trying...
...Grisham's attempt to distance his novel from The Firm's slick legal plot actually compromises the novel's success, Schumacher's pious adherence to the dramatic material of the novel--the Sway melodrama--significantly reduces "The Client"'s suspense potential. By the time Jones first appears (almost 15 minutes into the film as U.S. District Attorney Roy Foltrigg), we are beginning to wonder whether the "explosive secret" that Mark has learned is really important or whether the local authorities simply find the kid a good person to harass. With Jones on the screen as the ambitious and disgustingly smooth...
Like Mark Sway, who takes on the federal authorities and the Mafia almost singlehandedly, Schumacher seems to think he can shoot 30 minutes of film without his supporting cast...
...highlight performance, occasional showing the impressive depth she captured in "Thelma and Louise." Had Schumacher fully exploited Sarandon's hard-ball verbal confrontations, "The Client" might have succeed ed as a fast-paced courtroom drama; unfortunately, Schumacher fails to commit to the dynamic court plot, preferring to interstice the Sway family drama with a few dismally unoriginal mob scenes...
...resolution; "The Client" could have succeeded as a suspense-drama in the style of "Witness" (from which some of its story seems to be based). Schumacher opts instead to leave his resolution off-screen, giving us the satisfaction of neither Foltrigg's victory nor Moldanno's arraignment. Even the Sway's story is questionably resolved; Ricky, who lapsed into a traumatic coma after witnessing Clifford's suicide, remains comatose during the closing credits--perhaps symbolic of the film itself...