Paul Edgecomb, resident of a Louisiana nursing home, begins to cry when he sees the film Top Hat played on the TV, his friend Elaine asks him what is wrong and he tells her the saga of John Coffey who was a prisoner on death row where Edgecomb worked. Coffey was sent there after being found guilty of the rape and murders of two white girls. He is a shy and sensitive man who demonstrates amazing healing abilities. He heals the governor's terminally ill wife, resurrects a mouse and cures Paul's UTI. Meanwhile, a sadistic guard called Percy joins the staff. Everyone hates him, but he has family ties to the governor. A prisoner called "Wild Bill" Wharton arrives in death row. He grabs John's arm and John psychically senses that Bill is responsible for the crime John is going down for. In a display of master class telepathy he makes Percy shoot Bill and go into a state of catatonia. Edgecomb asks him how he does this and John takes his hand and gives him 'A part of himself' so he can see what happened to the girls. John is offered freedom by Edgecomb but says he is too weary and sick of the world. As a last request before his execution, John watches Top Hat. So that is why Edgecomb is depressed. Plus John is 108 years old. He was given this longevity by absorbing some of John's energy but he has outlved everyone he loved and that is his punishment from God for letting an innocent man die. Frank Darabont does an amazing job to bring Stephen King's novel to life. It is a great story which makes for a great film. It is long at over three hours - which reflects the slow passing of time in a prison, but it is never boring. It is definitely more character than action driven, and the acting is astounding. We are talking flawless here. I am not a fan of Tom Hanks or the kind of movies he appears in, but he does acquit himself admirably in The Green Mile. As do the rest of the cast. The setting of the movie could have been quite claustrophobic - death row is not exactly spacious - but Darabont uses interesting and unusual filmic techniques to flesh out the setting. Michael Clarke Duncan who plays John Coffey is a real revelation here in a very moving performance. He almost out acts Tom Hanks, but Hanks with his compassionate approach to his death row inmates and his thorny moral dilemma about putting to death an innocent man carries the crux of the movie with panache.
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!
