The Firm

Mitch McDeere is a Harvard law graduate with a promising future, and several firms are courting him. He accepts an unusually generous offer from a small Memphis practice, Bendini, Lambert & Locke, which showers him with a high salary, a car and a house. The workload is punishing, and before long Mitch begins to suspect that his employers are hiding something. Two of his colleagues are dead, and the firm's real business turns out to be serving organized crime. The FBI approaches Mitch and pressures him to hand over evidence against his own employers, leaving him caught between the firm, which does not let people walk away, and the bureau, which will not let him refuse.

Sydney Pollack directed the film, the thirteenth of the seventeen he made, arriving between Havana and Sabrina. Robert Towne, David Rayfiel and David Rabe wrote the screenplay, and Tom Cruise leads a cast that includes Jeanne Tripplehorn as Mitch's wife Abby, Gene Hackman as Avery Tolar, Hal Holbrook, Terry Kinney and Wilford Brimley. The production cost about 42 million dollars and took roughly 270 million worldwide, a strong return.

On IMDb the film holds 6.9 from about 161,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.7 from around 2,400 votes. A critics' rating of 6.3 from 59 reviews places it slightly below both audience scores. At 154 minutes, the film builds its tension through the gradual exposure of the firm's criminal ties rather than through action.