6. The Gingerbread Man
On the heels of cinematic adaptations of The Chamber and The Rainmaker, director Robert Altman (M*A*S*H, The Player) brings the seventh John Grisham legal thriller to the screen with The Gingerbread Man. Based not on a novel this time but upon an original Grisham screen story, Gingerbread Man serves up the type of moody, Southern-fried legal drama that Grisham is known for. Kenneth Branagh (Dead Again, Hamlet) lays down his British accent and plays Savannah lawyer Rick Magruder, who, after a tryst with a stranger, finds himself indebted to a woman who wants her crazy father (Robert Duvall) sent away to the crazy farm. Daryl Hannah, Tom Berenger and Robert Downey, Jr., round out the cast. Despite a number of mixed and negative reviews, The Gingerbread Man is a fairly tight, atmospheric and well-oiled film. While the plot is typical Grisham in its pacing and twists and turns, the cast (particularly Branagh) elevates the material while Altmans sometimes delicate touch and attention to detail add a polish to the works that leaves The Gingerbread Man a better film that it ought to have been.