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Cancer: Minor Films   no photo.
TitleRainmaker, The (1997)
Alternative/Original TitleJohn Grisham's The Rainmaker
DisabilityCancer Leukemia
CountryUSA
Length134
GenreLegal drama
Rating4
DirectorFrancis Coppola
CastMatt Damon Danny DeVito Claire Danes Jon Voight Mary Kay Place Dean Stockwell
NotesDamon is the newly qualified lawyer defending a young man who has leukemia. A bone marrow transplant operation could save his life. The man's father spends most of his time in the family car in the garden. He has a mental illness after a war injury which left him with a metal plate in his head. (his character isn't developed). There's a scene where Damon meets a young woman in hospital who has been beaten up by her husband with a baseball bat. But this film is not all doom and gloom. There many moments of humour often provided by Danny DeVito who is brilliant at the hustler who has never qualified as a lawyer. This is a beautifully paced film with a great supporting cast. Damon is not a substitute for Cruise. He's quieter, more sublte like the film itself. Damon's lawyer gets involved with his clients, the boy, the girl and an old woman whose children think she's has lots of money. He's not fighting great causes but for little people. And sometimes he fails. From the novel by John Grisham.

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