The Green Mile Review

"The Green Mile"is based on a novel by Stephen King, and has been written and directed by Frank Darabont. It is Darabont's first film since the great "Shawshank Redemption" in 1994. That, too, was based on a King prison story, but this one is very different. It involves the supernatural, for one thing,in a spiritual, not a creepy, way.

I guess this is the only movie till date that has managed to make me cry.This movie has memorable performances by Tom Hanks And Michael Clarke Duncan.Many feeble minded people believe that this movie is way too long,in fact this movie couldn't be any longer or shorter with respect to time.Both the novel as well as the movie are mind blowing pieces of art.

The movie is told in flashback as the memories of Paul as an old man, now in a retirement home. "The math doesn't quite work out," he admits at one point, and we find out why. The story is in no haste to get to the sensational and supernatural; it takes at least an hour simply to create the relationships in the prison, where Paul's lieutenant is rock-solid and dependable, where the warden is good and fair, and where the prisoners include a balmy coot named Delacroix and a taunting monster named Wharton.

By taking the extra time, Darabont has made King's "The Green Mile" into a story which develops and unfolds, which has detail and space. The movie would have been much diminished at two hours--it would have been a series of episodes without context. As Darabont directs it, it tells a story with beginning, middle, end, vivid characters, humor, outrage and emotional release.[9.5/10]