Review – The Green Mile

Normally I shy away from emotionally-manipulative, big budget Hollywood epics like this. And to be sure, this go-around includes many of the features that generally tend to drive me off: super-sentimentality, high-priced stars who feel that their delivery of every line has to justify their seven-digit paychecks, and a message so thick it probably has to be cleaned out of the projector after every screening. Further, I don’t like being able to practically hear the pitch meeting while I’m watching a movie (“hey, it’ll be just as big as The Shawshank Redemption” or words to that effect). On the other hand, I have to admit that I’m a sucker for Stephen King, even when he’s being as Ray-Bradbury-sticky-sweet as he is here. The filmmakers remain reasonably faithful to the original tale of a death row inmate with an unusual gift, and as a result the plot keeps moving throughout the movie’s three-plus hours’ worth of running time (except toward the very end, when the story begins to waver and wallow just a bit). So if you’re in the mood to have your emotions yanked around for a few hours, you could do a lot worse. Worth seeing