What it’s about: Hotshot Harvard Law graduate Mitch McDeere (Cruise) is being courted by all the big firms but, against the reservations of his wife Abby (Trippelhorn), he decides to sign on with Bendini, Lambert & Locke, a relatively small firm out of Memphis that shows up with an unexpectedly sweet offer. But as he’s taken under the wing of Avery Tolar (Hackman), he begins to suspect his new employer is not all it seems to be and he becomes caught in a vise between the firm’s head of security Bill DeVasher (Brimley) and Wayne Tarrance (Harris), a high-pressure government agent. To escape with his life, license, and marriage all intact, Mitch recruits Tammy Hemphill (Hunter), a fiery private investigator, for a long-shot scheme to get out clean.

Reflections: A solid workhorse thriller from the peak era of John Grisham adaptations–from his 1991 novel, this time. Everyone here knows what they’re doing: Pollack’s direction is tight and tense without being showy or getting in the way. The script gets a little muddy and complicated as it goes on, but it never starts feeling dumb, and it all comes out in the wash. Tom Cruise is in fine form, bringing Mitch a little bit of a bad-boy edge until he realizes how in over his head he is; Trippelhorn is wide-eyed but serious, Hackman is weary and cyncial, Holly Hunter (earning one of her two 1993 Oscar nominations) is a pistol, and a whole swathe of character actors are bringing glimpses of interesting stories around the edges.

Both the strength and the weakness here is how much this movie is exactly what you expect it to be. On the one hand, it’s not doing anything particularly special, lacking some of the grittier personality even of other Grisham adaptations (The Rainmaker, A Time to Kill, etc.), let alone the ’90s thriller scene in general. The stakes feel taught as you’re watching, but don’t especially linger. And the deconstruction of glorified, cuthroat ’80s boardroom culture feels flat and old hat at this point (American Psycho exists now and gets much weirder with it). But, on the other hand, there’s something to be said for broad, popcorn entertainment that still feels competent, adult, and doesn’t pander. And “big, mainstream ’90s thriller” is a very particular flavor that this hits perfectly. It’s kind of long, but it’s fun to watch, and keeps its energy up even in its final third where all the scheming is a little hard to track.

The one aspect of the film that does kind of stand out is the jaunty (also Oscar-nominated) score by Dave Grusin. Its jazz-piano texture is a weird fit, but it does fit, making it the riskiest and most interesting choice here and worth noting. But even without that fun touch, this is still a solid genre film and worth checking out, even if it’s not gonna blow your mind.