When it comes to legal movies and TV shows, few of them get points for realism, and The Firm is no exception. While the film does capture some aspects of the associate lifestyle that may cause legally-trained viewers to point at their screen and whistle like Leonardo DiCaprio, the story goes somewhat off the rails by the third act – which is arguably where it becomes the most entertaining.

Spoilers ahead . . .

The Firm – based on John Grisham’s 1991 novel of the same name – came out in 1993 and stars Tom Cruise as Mitch McDeere, a Harvard Law School graduate who hopes to one day get his brother out of prison. At the start of the movie, Mitch is living out every law student’s dream as he entertains multiple BigLaw job offers, but he eventually settles on a boutique firm called Bendini, Lambert, & Locke (BL&L) down in Memphis.

BL&L pulls out all the stops to impress Mitch by providing him with a house, fancy car, and lucrative salary, but his wife Abby (played by Jeanne Tripplehorn) quickly picks up on some major red flags regarding the firm’s culture. For example, another lawyer’s wife tells Abby that BL&L doesn’t “forbid” their attorneys’ wives from working their own jobs, which raises some concerns for Abby about how involved the firm will be in their personal lives. 

Abby voices her suspicions, but Mitch wants to give BL&L a chance. As Mitch studies for the bar and begins working, Avery Tolar – a senior partner played by Gene Hackman – takes Mitch under his wing. Right off the bat, it’s clear that Avery is the kind of lawyer who isn’t afraid to bend the rules, but things get worse when Avery takes Mitch on a business trip to the Cayman Islands. There, Mitch discovers evidence linking BL&L to the deaths of several of their own associates. 

While it is often said that law firms work their associates to death, there is a bit more to it than that. Mitch is approached by FBI Agent Wayne Tarrance (played by Ed Harris), who reveals that BL&L’s top client is the Morolto crime family in Chicago. Those associates were killed when they discovered the truth and tried to leave the firm. Tarrance tells Mitch that the FBI will pay him a handsome sum of money and release his brother from jail if he cooperates with their investigation, but Mitch doesn’t fully trust that they can keep him and Abby safe from the mafia. At the same time, BL&L starts blackmailing Mitch with photographic evidence of him cheating on Abby in the Cayman Islands.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Mitch hatches a scheme to get his brother free and the BL&L partners behind bars in one fell swoop, and this is where the movie goes a little haywire. Without going into too much detail, Mitch comes clean with Abby; she plans to leave him, but then has a change of heart and actually helps Mitch by going down to the Caymans to secure the files by seducing and drugging Avery. Avery catches on, but lets her go, and explains that Mitch’s infidelity was orchestrated by BL&L – they paid a woman to seduce him, which I guess is supposed to mean it doesn’t count. In any case, Mitch knocks out a hitman sent to kill him (because it wouldn’t be a Tom Cruise movie without a little action) and then pays a visit to the Morolto crime family, where he explains that BL&L has been over-billing them. He strikes a deal with the Moroltos to show the FBI their invoices from BL&L while keeping the rest of their business secret under attorney-client privilege.

The Moroltos get away scott-free, but Mitch gives Agent Tarrance a way to charge the BL&L partners with mail fraud, which exposes them to RICO charges. Mitch and Abby make up and return to Boston, while Mitch gives all the money he got from the FBI to his newly freed brother. 

In the end, it is a little unclear what the moral of the story is supposed to be. Mitch gets the crooked partners of BL&L locked up on a technicality, but takes on a notorious crime family as his client – even though they killed several people and tried to do the same to him. Abby excuses Mitch’s infidelity and uses some morally questionable methods of her own to get the evidence her husband needs. Considering that the whole mess would have been avoided if Mitch hadn’t taken the job in Memphis, maybe the real lesson is just to never leave Boston.

Still, there is something entertaining about watching Mitch get out of the dilemma on his own terms without compromising his legal ethics. The plot may not be terribly realistic, but it wouldn’t be much fun if it was – after all, not many people would pay to watch Tom Cruise do doc review for two hours. So if you can suspend your disbelief about a first-year associate outmaneuvering law firm partners, the mafia, and the FBI, The Firm is definitely worth a watch.

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Eddie Godino is a second-year law student at BC Law. Contact him at godinoe@bc.edu.