Grisham's scenarios often feel contrived and mechanical, but with Coppola forgoing the usual serpentine plotting in favour of emotional depth and well-rounded characters, this is courtroom cinema at its very best.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2025

The Rainmaker is a little slow to get started, and the Damon and Claire Danes relationship perhaps didn’t need to turn romantic, but once it gets to the courtroom and surprise witnesses are being called it’s hard not to be enthralled.

| Jan 11, 2025

Happily this time people will discover our hometown boy Matt Damon, who gives a superb lead performance in an unfortunately mediocre property.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 6, 2024

This David-and-Goliath story is helped along by newcomer Damon's charming performance and a cast that includes quirky performances.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 6, 2024

This effort shows no sign of a halt to the decline of Coppola, a film-maker who, in the 1970s, was producing towering achievements such as the first two Godfather movies and The Conversation.

| Jan 24, 2023

The Rainmaker is a formulaic potboiler, decently acted, notably by Mickey Rourke... and Jon Voight.

| Jan 20, 2023

The style of direction is relatively impersonal, but Coppola gets the job done, making the most of the Memphis locations and letting humor and compassion flourish; the film's unforced sympathy for the underprivileged is one of its biggest pleasures.

| Jan 20, 2023

The great director Francis Ford Coppola takes a John Grisham novel and shows us and directors of other Grisham adaptations how things should be done.

| Original Score: B | Jan 10, 2023

Coppola turns this sow’s ear into more of a functional handbag with gaudily attractive decorations.

| Original Score: B- | Sep 1, 2022

With its fair share of southern charm and old school filmmaking ingredients, "The Rainmaker" floats like morning mist compared to the thunder-and-lightning storms of other Grisham films.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 1, 2022

What The Rainmaker lacks in nuance or originality it makes up for by serving as cinematic comfort food.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 2, 2021

[I]t's the stellar performances from the cast that make this quiet little film such a rewarding watch.

| Apr 28, 2021

A regular Coppola film about corruption in the lawyers' world and the moral setbacks found in leading legal matters. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jul 25, 2020

...a deliberate yet mostly engrossing drama...

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 13, 2020

One of the better screen adaptations of a John Grisham novel features surprisingly zippy direction from Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) and a colourful supporting cast.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 1, 2020

A wonderfully quirky cast under Francis Ford Coppola's direction makes this one of the more enjoyable Grisham movies.

| Mar 5, 2018

| Original Score: C | Sep 7, 2011

Coppola has never been particularly known for his comic touch, but here he seems bent on leavening the melodrama with as many laughs as possible, and they are generally honest and well-earned.

Full Review | Jun 9, 2008

The Rainmaker is easily the best of the Grisham movies so far, and it has touches of excellence, but it's a routine work.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 26, 2006

This competent, anonymous legal drama (scripted by Michael Herr) is the best John Grisham adaptation yet.

| Feb 9, 2006