Lawyer movies are only worth watching if they are well done, and The Rainmaker is one of those movies. Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) is a young lawyer straight out of law school and desperate for work. While learning the legal ropes under a crooked lawyer, Bruiser Stone (Mickey Rourke), Rudy takes on the case of Donny Ray Black (Johnny Whitworth) a young boy stricken with leukemia and his medical claims denied by his insurance company.
What follows is a typical case of the little guy vs. big corporate greed, but what makes the story watchable and not cliché is the wonderful cast and acting. The players include John Voight as the sleazy corporate lawyer, Dean Stockwell as the corrupt judge in the pocket of the corporate world, Danny DeVito as Matt Damon's legal assistant/would be lawyer that can't seem to pass the bar exam, and Danny Glover as the anti-corporate judge whose rulings help Matt Damon bring the case to trial.
The movie does a good job of presenting the ebb and flow of the case, he audience's opinion of guilt or innocence sways with each new witness and legal maneuver, until the final bombshell is dropped and the case is easily decided. To sum it up, the story is a bit cliché yet well told, the characters are similarly cliché yet well acted, and the ending is typical of Hollywood yet rewarding. In all The Rainmaker is a textbook example of a formula movie where attention to detail, characters, and plot make it better than it really is.
What follows is a typical case of the little guy vs. big corporate greed, but what makes the story watchable and not cliché is the wonderful cast and acting. The players include John Voight as the sleazy corporate lawyer, Dean Stockwell as the corrupt judge in the pocket of the corporate world, Danny DeVito as Matt Damon's legal assistant/would be lawyer that can't seem to pass the bar exam, and Danny Glover as the anti-corporate judge whose rulings help Matt Damon bring the case to trial.
The movie does a good job of presenting the ebb and flow of the case, he audience's opinion of guilt or innocence sways with each new witness and legal maneuver, until the final bombshell is dropped and the case is easily decided. To sum it up, the story is a bit cliché yet well told, the characters are similarly cliché yet well acted, and the ending is typical of Hollywood yet rewarding. In all The Rainmaker is a textbook example of a formula movie where attention to detail, characters, and plot make it better than it really is.