The John Grisham Project

I first began this project as a dual one, which combined reading the John Grisham book prior to seeing the film, and therefore comparing the two in addition to my standard film review for each movie. However, as anyone knows me could have predicted, that idea has since fizzled out. I am often excited about reading books and go through short spurts where I actually read quite a bit, but then sputter out my enthusiasm and don’t read for months. That’s what happened here. I made it through the first two titles, and part of The Client, but haven’t read a word in months. To expedite this project, I will pivot to just watching these Grisham movies and provide my thoughts there.

For what it’s worth, this is not for a lack of enjoyment from reading The Firm and The Pelican Brief, as I liked the experience and reading those two novels, it is merely a time issue and motivational issue, as I struggle to be enthusiastic to pick up a book. I may read them at some point where I get the itch to read again, but for the purposes of this project, just the movies.

I’ll be doing this chronologically by movie release, not book release:

1. The Firm (Sydney Pollack, 1993)
2. The Pelican Brief (Alan J. Pakula, 1993)
3. The Client (Joel Schumacher, 1994)
4. A Time to Kill (Joel Schumacher, 1996)
5. The Chamber (James Foley, 1996)
6. The Rainmaker (Francis Ford Coppola, 1997)
7. Runaway Jury (Gary Fleder, 2003)

After completing this marathon, I found the entirety of the Grisham catalog to be a mixed bag. There were some great entries, good entries, and definitely some bad entries too. It was a rewarding project, even if I abandoned the source texts after just two entries. But it is projects like this which help fuel my passion for films and stories. Here is my final ranking:

1. A Time to Kill
2. The Firm
3. The Rainmaker
4. Runaway Jury
5. The Client
6. The Pelican Brief
7. The Chamber