--- title: "The Firm" year: 1993 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-firm" fi1m_id: "the-firm" imdb_id: "tt0106918" tmdb_id: 37233 wikidata_id: "Q821692" fi1m_score: 71 critics_score: 66 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-10-04T23:10:49.544153+00:00" updated: "2026-10-04T23:10:49.997172+00:00" region: "SG" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Firm (1993) Directed by Sydney Pollack · 2h 34m · Drama, Mystery, Thriller ## Identity The Firm - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-firm - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** the-firm - **IMDb ID:** tt0106918 - **TMDB ID:** 37233 - **Wikidata ID:** Q821692 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106918/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/37233, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q821692 **Fi1m score: 71** · Critics 66 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* Tom Cruise runs for two and a half hours and Gene Hackman steals the film sitting down > Sydney Pollack turns John Grisham’s novel into a long, handsome, unhurried thriller, and the best of it is Gene Hackman, sunburnt and sad, showing a young man what the money buys. It runs 154 minutes and we felt most of them. ## Synopsis Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) is finishing near the top of his law school class when a small firm makes him an offer larger than any he has had, with a car and a house thrown in. He and his wife Abby (Jeanne Tripplehorn) take it and move. Senior partner Oliver Lambert (Hal Holbrook) runs the welcome; Avery Tolar (Gene Hackman) takes Mitch under his wing; Lamar Quinn (Terry Kinney) is the friendly young associate; William Devasher (Wilford Brimley) looks after security, which seems to involve a great deal of looking. Nobody, Mitch is told, ever leaves the firm, and two of its lawyers have recently died. Then a shaven-headed FBI man, Wayne Tarrance (Ed Harris), stops him at lunch with questions. ## Review Sydney Pollack has made a thriller about a job offer. Mitch McDeere takes the job at a small firm because the money is absurd and the people are kind, and *The Firm* spends 154 minutes showing him what the kindness was for. It is a handsome, patient, old-fashioned piece of work, and it is half an hour longer than it needs to be. We enjoyed it most of the way and checked our watch twice. The screenplay, credited to David Rabe, Robert Towne and David Rayfiel from John Grisham’s novel, is at its best early on, when the firm is a seduction rather than a trap. Richard Macdonald builds the offices as a Southern gentleman’s club, dark wood, brass lamps, portraits on the walls, and John Seale shoots them in a soft amber that makes them look like somewhere to grow old. Ruth Myers dresses the partners in suits that cost more than Mitch’s car and dresses Mitch in one that plainly did not. Gene Hackman is the reason to see it. Avery Tolar, the partner who takes Mitch on, is a tax lawyer with a tan, a drink to hand and a marriage he does not discuss, and Hackman plays him as a man who worked out the price of all this years ago and has been paying it monthly. He does almost nothing: a slow smile, a glass raised, a pause before a question he has heard from many young men. There is a scene late on in which he tells someone what his life has cost him, and it moved us more than we expected a Tom Cruise thriller to. Then Cruise starts running again. Cruise is fine. He is quick, eager and believable as a man who can memorise a file in a sitting, and the film asks him to sprint through a great deal of the city, which he does as if the running were the acting. Jeanne Tripplehorn gives Abby more spine than the script gives her lines, and her scenes of a marriage going quiet in a house too big for it are among the best things here. Ed Harris, shaven and furious, treats Mitch as a problem rather than a person. Holly Hunter has perhaps fifteen minutes as Tammy Hemphill, a secretary with a cigarette and no illusions, and takes most of them. Hal Holbrook, as the courtly senior partner, and Wilford Brimley, as the soft-voiced security man, do what is needed. Tobin Bell, as a killer billed only as The Nordic Man, says almost nothing and is the one person here we were frightened of. The trouble is in the middle and at the end. Fredric and William Steinkamp cut the opening and the chases with real snap; then the film sits down for forty minutes of Mitch photocopying and being followed, and the length shows. The villains, when they come into the open, are men in bad jackets with guns, and a story that has made a quiet law firm so frightening does not need them. The climax, which we will not describe, turns on paperwork rather than gunfire, braver than it sounds and less exciting than it needs to be. Dave Grusin’s score is piano, nearly all the way through, light and rippling, pleasant for an hour and a little maddening after two. Pollack made [*Three Days of the Condor*](https://film.one/film/three-days-of-the-condor) (1975), a tighter version of the same anxiety, and [*Tootsie*](https://film.one/film/tootsie) (1982), where letting actors talk over one another paid off best. *The Firm* has the ease of both and the discipline of neither. It is a good film with a great performance in it, and the performance is not the star’s. See it for Hackman, for Hunter, and for the first hour in those warm offices, before anyone has to run. It carries a 15 certificate and opened in British cinemas on 10 September 1993. *Fi1m score 71, published 4 October 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics find The Firm an absorbing, polished thriller, and the praise clusters around Sydney Pollack’s assured direction and the cast. Gene Hackman is singled out more than anyone, with Tom Cruise close behind, and several reviews point to the supporting performances as the film’s chief strength. The detail of life inside the law firm is noted as one of the things that keeps it watchable across a long running time. The reservations are about length and weight. Even admirers call it overlong and the story slow to unfold, and Empire finds it overindulgent and forgettable despite working as pulpy entertainment. The sharpest dissent comes from Time Out, which faults Pollack for softening the novel’s conspiracy paranoia and reducing the Mob to ordinary goons. The spread is fairly wide, from warm approval to outright disappointment, though most land on the approving side. ## Straight answers **Is The Firm worth watching?** *The Firm* is worth watching for anyone who likes a patient, handsome legal thriller and can forgive half an hour of slack in the middle, and we scored it 71. Gene Hackman, as the sad, sunburnt partner who takes Tom Cruise under his wing, is the reason to see it. The first hour in those warm offices is the best of it. **How long is The Firm, and what is it rated?** *The Firm* runs 2h 34m. It is a drama and mystery film. **Where can I watch The Firm in Singapore?** *The Firm* is not on any streaming or rental service in Singapore at the moment. It is available in 35 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is The Firm, and is it suitable for children?** *The Firm* carries a 15 certificate, and its menace is mostly implied: a law firm that watches its people, two lawyers recently dead, a near-silent killer who frightened us more than any gunfire. The violence that does arrive is brief and the villains are men with guns rather than anything gory. It is a long, talky film for adults and older teenagers, and younger children would simply be bored. **How does The Firm compare to Three Days of the Condor?** *The Firm* is the longer and looser of Sydney Pollack's two desk-job thrillers, and [*Three Days of the Condor*](https://film.one/film/three-days-of-the-condor) is the tighter one. Both turn on an ordinary employee discovering his employer is lethal, but the earlier film sustains its tension across its whole length where *The Firm* sags for forty minutes in the middle. Choose *The Firm* for Hackman's performance and the slow seduction of the opening; choose *Condor* if you want the fear kept taut. **Is The Firm based on a true story or a book?** *The Firm* is based on John Grisham's novel of the same name, not on a true story, adapted by David Rabe, Robert Towne and David Rayfiel. Our review does not measure the film against the book, so we cannot say how closely it follows the page. You need not have read it: the film explains the job offer, the firm and the trap clearly enough on its own. **What should I watch after The Firm?** After *The Firm*, try [*Three Days of the Condor*](https://film.one/film/three-days-of-the-condor) (1975, Fi1m 80): Pollack’s earlier, leaner version of the same fear: a desk job that turns out to be lethal. Then [*Michael Clayton*](https://film.one/film/michael-clayton) (2007, Fi1m 86): A law firm fixer finds out what he has been fixing; the grown-up cousin of this film; and [*The Pelican Brief*](https://film.one/film/the-pelican-brief) (1993, Fi1m 63): The other big Grisham of the year, less glossy, with Denzel Washington doing the legwork. ### Reviews we read (7) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (85/100, inferred): Turan praises the film as a polished, exciting adaptation that improves on the novel while preserving its appeal. He singles out the exceptional supporting performances and Pollack’s subtle, assured direction. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-06-30-ca-8451-story.html) - **Radio Times**, John Ferguson (4/5): Ferguson finds the lavish legal thriller engrossing, despite its sometimes overlong feel. He particularly praises Gene Hackman and Tom Cruise, while noting Hackman’s strong performance. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-wct7b2/the-firm/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (3/4): Ebert finds the film an engaging thriller, though its story takes time to unfold. He singles out the details of life inside the law firm as a strength. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-firm-1993) - **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (75/100, inferred): McCarthy calls the film an absorbing, old-fashioned crowd-pleaser despite its disposable story. He praises Pollack’s polished direction and the convincing performances, especially those of Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman. [Read](https://variety.com/1993/film/reviews/the-firm-3-1200432377/) - **The New York Times**, Janet Maslin (64/100, inferred): The article body is inaccessible, so its verdict and specific praise or criticism cannot be verified. The URL identifies a review of the 1993 film, but the page provides no review text. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/30/movies/review-film-the-firm-a-mole-in-the-den-of-corrupt-legal-lions.html) - **Empire**, Matt Mueller (50/100, inferred): Mueller finds the film overindulgent and forgettable, though it still works as pulpy entertainment. He singles out the supporting performances as its chief strength. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/firm-review/) - **Time Out**, WH (35/100, inferred): The review is critical of Pollack’s conventional adaptation. It faults the film for softening the novel’s conspiracy-paranoia atmosphere and turning the Mob into ordinary goons. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-firm) ## Details - **Director:** Sydney Pollack - **Director:** Sydney Pollack - **Screenplay:** Robert Towne, David Rayfiel, David Rabe - **Novel:** John Grisham - **Cinematography:** John Seale - **Editor:** William Steinkamp, Fredric Steinkamp - **Music:** Dave Grusin - **Production design:** Richard Macdonald - **Costume design:** Ruth Myers - **Producer:** Scott Rudin, John Davis, Sydney Pollack - **Cast:** Tom Cruise as Mitch McDeere; Jeanne Tripplehorn as Abby McDeere; Gene Hackman as Avery Tolar; Hal Holbrook as Oliver Lambert; Terry Kinney as Lamar Quinn; Wilford Brimley as William Devasher; Ed Harris as Wayne Tarrance; Holly Hunter as Tammy Hemphill - **Runtime:** 2h 34m - **Release (Singapore):** 12 September 2017 - **Genres:** Drama, Mystery, Thriller - **Budget:** $42 million - **Box office:** $270 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auxb3l4Y8j0 ## Where to watch in Singapore Not streaming, renting or buying in Singapore at the last check. Also available in: AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, HR, HU, IE, IN, IT, JP, LT, MX, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, TR, UA, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1994: Best Original Score (nominated); Best Supporting Actress (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Three Days of the Condor* (1975), Fi1m 80: Pollack’s earlier, leaner version of the same fear: a desk job that turns out to be lethal — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/three-days-of-the-condor.md) - *Michael Clayton* (2007), Fi1m 86: A law firm fixer finds out what he has been fixing; the grown-up cousin of this film — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/michael-clayton.md) - *The Pelican Brief* (1993), Fi1m 63: The other big Grisham of the year, less glossy, with Denzel Washington doing the legwork — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-pelican-brief.md) - *The Insider* (1999), Fi1m 89: A man with a secret, a corporation that wants it kept, and Michael Mann’s patience — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-insider.md) - *Z* (1969), Fi1m 84: Costa-Gavras’s political thriller: the cover-up as procedure, fast, angry and still frightening — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/z.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-firm