Legal Theories in the Rainmaker

Coppola obviously appreciates the moral ambiguity of his characters, especially DeVito`s gentle ambulance hunter. And while Coppola rarely tackles a comedy, he scours Grisham`s pageturner in search of dark humor, largely based on the heroic innocent`s growing cynicism for his chosen profession. After five adaptations of Grisham, “The Rainmaker” best decodes the satirical subtext with Grisham`s legal ease. John Grisham`s The Rainmaker in area theatres is rated PG-13 for language and sexuality. Caption: Rookie lawyer Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon), right, and Deck Shifflet (Danny DeVito) team up in the courtroom in “John Grisham`s The Rainmaker.” New lawyer Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) has a big first case in “John Grisham`s The Rainmaker.” Hatred of lawyers and wife beatings go hand in hand in this film, which cleverly begins with a real bottom eater of the legal profession, Bob, “Bruiser”, Stone (Mickey Rourke), with whom Rudy gets his first job after law school. But Bruiser is soon bankrupt and on the run from the law, and Rudy must open his own new business with Bruiser`s adorable friend, Dick Shifler (Danny DeVito). “They didn`t teach me how to chase ambulances in law school,” Rudy says with a slight reproach. The New Abnormal is a forthcoming book about the technology-driven state of “surveillance and control,” written by Aaron Kheriaty, a physician and scientist who has experienced firsthand the dangers of medical technocracy. Dick is endearing because he believes, as we are supposed to, that “there is nothing more exciting than pinning down an insurance company.” Why should we believe that? Every time an insurance company is “nailed” by success fees like these guys, two people – including at least one lawyer – win the lottery, and the rest of us have to pay higher prices for insurance. Racketeering is great for lawyers, of course, but Grisham has to sell a lot of books and Coppola has to sell a lot of tickets to non-lawyers to deserve a crust. So they succeed in making this avocado enrichment program attractive to the rest of us by making adorable lawyers` opponents as unattractive as possible. “Well, you`d better learn quickly, or you`ll starve,” says the adorable Dick. Our Protestant ancestors went to great lengths to develop a theological, ethical, and political framework that would allow the believer to navigate these treacherous paths with confidence and care.

Fidelity to the Holy Father is a Catholic duty, but it is not a question of turning off the eyes and brain. First of all, the insurance company they are suing is Great Benefit, not only huge, heartless, arrogant and corrupt, it is also jointly and jointly and solidarily stupider than a load of bricks. His lead attorney, Leo Drummond (Jon Voight), is a transparent fraudster, and he and his colleagues at Great Benefit leave behind a mile-wide trail of paper that even allows a tyrographic lawyer like Rudy to “nail him” on behalf of a heartbreaking family of poor white garbage whose only son dies because Great Benefit doesn`t pay for a bone marrow transplant. Why not? Because transplantation is supposed to be an “experimental” procedure. But what do you think Rudy finds lying around? A document in which the Great Benefit Medical Board recommends investing in a bone marrow transplant clinic on the grounds that it is now a standard medical procedure! Gotcha! Although Rudy has yet to hear a case and Deck has repeatedly failed the bar exam, the two are suing a giant insurance company on behalf of an impoverished leukemia patient. The young man is dying because Great Benefit refused to pay for a bone marrow transplant. “John Grisham`s The Rainmaker” isn`t just another explosion of the overflowing briefcase of you-know-who. In the hands of Francis Ford Coppola, the familiar thread becomes something like Southern fried film noir: disillusionment, shabby sidewalks and an “Aw Shucks” drawing.

Meanwhile, Rudy is attached to an abused woman (Claire Danes) whose marital problems smear the hero`s character indelibly. Faced with his own ethical dilemma, Rudy chooses justice over law. To this end, he becomes a liar, a coward and an accomplice to a crime. But nothing is done about this moral error. The standards set for insurance companies do not seem to apply to warriors in the courtroom. That is the quid pro quo. Rudy`s abilities are equal to those of “My Cousin Vinny,” but the newly appointed judge (Danny Glover) is clearly on the side of the dying boy — and who wouldn`t? — and pushes Rudy in the right direction. The opposition, a super-shy arrogant (Jon Voight) and his battery of experts, seems impressive, but no jury in the world is about to let a stingy insurance company (is there another way?) get away with it. The Rainmaker is superfluous proof that Francis Ford Coppola lost it permanently. If you thought it couldn`t be worse for him after the scandalous Jack, wait until you see this two-hour infomercial on behalf of the Trial Lawyers Association. Coppola seems to have exhausted all the reserves of subtlety and moral ambiguity with which he was naturally blessed with the first two godfathers, and now he is “in,” as they say, a mere melodrama. The vehicle of the same is a novel by John Grisham that, turned into cinematic lenses, gives us a young noble hero, Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon), who was inspired by the civil rights movement to become a lawyer, and despite (as he tells us in his opening commentary) his father who hates lawyers and beats women.

Matt Damon, a postmodern version of Mickey Rooney, plays Rudy Baylor, an idealistic young law graduate who discovers that his hometown of Memphis has more lawyers than Starship Troopers. The city, he points out, suffers from an “infestation” of ambulance hunters, television lawyers and small forms of legal scum. Since Rudy can`t find a job at a reputable company, he works for Bruiser Stone (Mickey Rourke), a strange TV lawyer with a float full of sharks in his office. But he doesn`t give up on his dreams of Perry Mason. Deck Shifflet (Danny DeVito), Bruiser`s cunning lieutenant, soon takes the novice under his wing and ends up going out alone. Coppola, who wrote and directed this entertaining adaptation, follows the script well-thought-out, but with the help of his victorious cast, he masks the lack of invention. Unfortunately, we do not hide the lack of tension that is as rare here as in Clinton`s coffee cassettes. Chinese Catholics could reasonably feel betrayed and abandoned, or worse. If there was any doubt that Rudy was the right lawyer, he tells self-deprecating lawyer jokes (“What`s the difference between a lawyer and one? She`ll stop silencing you when you`re dead” to disarm critics, and he uses both his fists and his legal skills to save the kind and grateful Claire Danes from another of those rogue women who hate lawyers. He may also work for an insurance company, but we are not told much.

So Rudy not only gets the girl, but also wins the jackpot. Luck with cards, luck in love, I guess. But hey, John Grisham`s rescue fantasies made him millions of dollars, so what do I know? Somehow, I managed to resist Grisham and Coppola`s multiple temptations to love Rudy and Rudy`s anti-insurance and anti-wife crusade, but all indications are that their moviegoers are seduced there.