So it's useful to keep an open mind toward straight-up-the-mainstream movies such as The Rainmaker. Now, I'm not saying you should go out of your way to see this sort of thing, but if it accidentally arrives via Netflix, or shows up on cable when nothing else is on, you also don't need to fly into a rage to illustrate just how far beneath you it would be to spend your precious time on it. As it turns out, The Rainmaker is a pretty goddamn engaging movie. I suppose it helped that Francis Ford Coppola directed it, though by no means would I say the film bears any recognizeable Coppola stamp (unlike the nine bottles of Sofia I consumed while watching it). I think he must know when he's making something like The Godfather or The Conversation, and when he's making something like The Rainmaker – the ratio of artistry to craftsmanship swings to about 95:5. It's like Coppola's high-end wines versus his mass-market wines … either way you get something palatable, though not necessarily something incredible. Hm, how sad is it that I think of Francis Coppola equally as a winemaker and a filmmaker? Perhaps he's just good at both. Or perhaps I just enjoy drinking as much as watching movies. Please call in Jeff VonVonderen if, say, in a year or so, I can name all of Coppola's wines but none of his films. As for this particular wine … I mean, film … I found myself suitably drawn into it in one of those rare occasions where a movie no one ever mentions anymore, and one that seems to be in perpetual cable rotation, hit me in just the right mood, and I sat down and watched the whole thing; even gripping me enough that I ignored my childrens' tearful pleas for "food." Matt Damon plays an altruistic lawyer who takes on a big insurance company and wins (sorry, did that spoil anything?), meanwhile helping Claire Danes escape abusive husband Andrew Shue (!). The central flaw of the movie is that Damon's character is so boundlessly altruistic (he even does yardwork for his elderly landlady, and pals around with the dying victim of the insurance scam he's trying) that there's never a sense that he won't win. It's like Coppola took Lumet's The Verdict and painted a big, sunshiny mural over it. I know, I know, the 70s are over, and I should let it go. But I LIKE disco! The contrivances in character development and plotting are compensated for by a strong cast inexplicably NOT just punching the clock, as you'd expect from everyone involved. Mickey Rourke, Jon Voight, Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, and even Dean Stockwell manage to specifically NOT ham it up. Danes is terrific in her one-note part; Virginia Madsen, Roy Scheider, and Randy Travis (!) all turn in great cameos. Damon is also quite good … it struck me what a consistently better actor he is than Ben Affleck—or rather, that Damon is an actor, and ought not to be thought of simultaneously every time Ben Affleck is brought up. They're entirely different calibers of wine … I mean actors. The Rainmaker could have used some real gravity (even the death and violence is "feel good"), but perhaps that wasn't the point … we certainly didn't need another "lawyer inadvertently stumbles into a conspiracy so big, it'll kill him!" type movie. So while The Rainmaker is certainly loaded with clichés, they were none of the clichés I expected, so no real harm done.
Review by |