The Green Mile

Frank Darabont returns to adapt his second Stephen King adaptation after The Shawshank Redemption.  This is, in a lot of ways, a spiritual successor to the aforementioned film.  It takes place in about the same time, it takes place in a prison, and it involves an innocent man being sentenced for a crime he didn't commit.  It also has one of the inmates playing a small role as the father of the two girls who are murdered.

Where Shawshank focused on the inmates, this story focuses on the guards.  The main character is Paul Edgecomb, a guard who mans "the green mile" a term used to describe death row, which is referred to as the last mile.  With the green linoleum floors, the two came together to form the green mile. 

Edgecomb's life is forever changed when John Coffey, a gargantuan inmate arrives, charged with the rape and murder of two little girls.  Despite his massive size, Coffey is a peaceful, almost child like person.  He's afraid of the dark and cries quite frequently.  He also has the ability to heal living things, or as he calls it "taking it back"; it referring to whatever is plaguing the healee whether it be a urinary tract infection, a brain tumor, or even bringing a mouse that had been stepped on back to life.

Duncan spends a vast majority of his screen time either teary eyed or crying, but he really sells the gentle goodness of his character.

Darabont put quite a cast together.  You've got Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, James Cromwell, a cameo by Gary Sinise and a slew of "hey it's that guy!" actors.  This high caliber of a cast is assembled and they are all upstaged by a mouse.

Yes, who can forget Mr. Jingles?  That mouse is freakin' awesome.  He steals the show here and a vast majority of the film's highlights come from his presence.

It's interesting to note that there isn't really a primary antagonist here.  You've got villainous characters such as the sniveling, cowardly, and spoiled Percy as well as the sociopathic "Wild Bill" but they aren't the focus of the story.

With a runtime of over three hours, you would think that the movie would drag, but it really doesn't.  I don't know how, but it manages to keep you gripped from beginning to end.

It's hard to believe that the movie is over a decade old.  That is pretty crazy. 

It had been awhile since I saw this film and I figured that upon another viewing that it would either be oscar bait or would just lack that "pop in and watch" quality that some movies have.  I was wrong in both cases, as the movie is really good and stands up to repeated viewings.  Even if you've seen it before, I would suggest giving this film another watch as it is really quite great.