DVD REVIEW: The Chamber/ The Gingerbread Man

Shane | 21 July 2016 | Reply

DVD REVIEW: The Chamber/ The Gingerbread Man
Shock Entertainment
6 June, 2016
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
7 ½ and 5 ½ /10

Despite being linked by author and legal themes, these two adaptations of John Grisham stories couldn’t be more different if they tried.

The Chamber features Chris O’Donnell as young lawyer Adam Hall, fresh out of school, who is determined to get a reprieve for his bitter, racist grandfather Sam Cayhall (played brilliantly by Gene Hackman) on death row. Faye Dunaway delivers another sterling performance as Cayhall’s daughter, a woman scarred by seeing the ignorant racism around her childhood.

The Gingerbread Man has a woefully miscast Kenneth Branagh as southern lawyer Rick Magruder, who has an affair with Embeth Davitz’z Mallory Doss. Magruder helps get Doss’s abusive father Dixon (Robert Duvall) locked up, but he escapes and everyone is in danger.

Not even the normally charming Robert Downey Jr (sporting a terrible accent only beaten by Branagh’s) nor a virtually unrecognisable Darryl Hannah can save this plodding and unengaging story.

The Chamber, meanwhile, is a truly interesting analysis of the terrible emotions of a death row prisoner and the feelings of those around him, that makes no argument for or against the system, merely shows how the protagonists deal with it. Its dramatic weight shows great subtlety and skill in the writing of William Goldman (The Princess Bride, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man) and Chris Reese – and it’s their skill that makes all the difference.