Notebook Reviews: THE CLIENT

Joel Schumacher – 1994.

The Client is a handsomely mounted, but disappointingly routine thriller from director Joel Schumacher. This John Grisham adaptation is an improvement on the source material, but you can tell where the plot is heading.

It’s good on a performance level – and the cast Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Renfro all do good work. Jones is particularly good value, but he isn’t given enough screen time, while Anthony Edwards is wasted in a thankless role. 

The Client isn’t Schumacher’s finest hour, but he does an admirable job elevating this potboiler to a good enough standard.