Review: The Chamber

Sam Cayhall (Gene Hackman) is about to meet the gas chamber for a bombing in the 60s that resulted in the deaths of two children. An unrepentant, but aging Mississippi racist (from a long line of Klan members), Cayhall is visited by his new lawyer just a month before his scheduled execution. That young lawyer turns out to be Adam Hall (Chris O’Donnell), Cayhall’s own grandson. Can O’Donnell find a way to save his grandfather? Did Cayhall act alone in the bombings? Faye Dunaway plays Cayhall’s long-suffering daughter who hates the sordid past being dredged up all over again. Lela Rochon and David Marshall Grant play O’Donnell’s assigned aide on the case and the smug governor who as a former prosecutor was the man to convict Cayhall in the first place. Richard Jackson plays a former FBI investigator on the bombing case, Millie Perkins plays the mother of one of the victims, Robert Prosky plays O’Donnell’s boss back in Chicago, and Raymond J. Barry plays a frightening character crucial to events from long ago.

 

This 1996 adaptation of the John Grisham thriller from underrated director James Foley (“At Close Range”, “Glengarry Glen Ross”, “Confidence”) seems to have been forgotten about over time and wasn’t terribly highly regarded on release, either. It’s far from the worst Grisham adaptation, and features excellent character work by Faye Dunaway, Raymond J. Barry, Richard Bradford, and especially Gene Hackman as perhaps the polar opposite of his character in “Mississippi Burning”.

 

I also like that the story is far more stripped down than some Grisham tales that can get bogged down in irrelevant side stories, obvious red herrings, and extraneous supporting characters (with one exception I’ll get to later). I haven’t read the novel so I don’t know whether to credit Grisham himself or screenwriters William Goldman (“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, “All the President’s Men”, “Misery”) and Chris Reese (whose only other credit to date is the pathetic “Ghost Dad”), but I appreciated it nonetheless. In fact, if the film is any indication, it must be one helluva book. The central hook of the lawyer attempting to save racist bastard Gene Hackman from the death penalty being his own grandson is pretty awesome, so it’s a shame that the grandson is played by the underwhelming and completely unspectacular Chris O’Donnell. He’s boring as hell, though to be fair I’m not sure who else of his generation would’ve been better. Matt Damon and Edward Norton hadn’t really hit the scene yet, Brendan Fraser wouldn’t fit. Christian Slater probably would’ve been my choice (Kiefer Sutherland would be another possibility, if perhaps a tad old for it), but no matter what, I’m pretty sure we can all agree that O’Donnell just doesn’t bring enough energy or dynamism to the role of a guy with a seriously short amount of time to save his grandfather’s life. Even after Hackman angrily chastises O’Donnell’s dad for killing himself, O’Donnell fails to display any real kind of human emotion appropriate as a response to such a venomous, hurtful tirade. He also gets a great, rousing speech towards the end…and just isn’t capable of doing it justice. He holds this film back quite a bit single-handedly. Truth be told, Foley’s direction doesn’t help, the film is a touch lethargic in pacing at times.

 

The other major problem with the film is the character played by Lela Rochon. Rochon is one of the screen’s all-time most beautiful women, but her role is entirely superfluous, annoying, and seemingly tacked-on (Was the character African-American in the novel? I doubt it, but I’ll happily stand corrected if so). Rochon’s overly vivacious performance seems at odds with the otherwise dour material, and bone-coloured pants suits are decidedly not to Ms. Rochon’s advantage. A much better African-American character is the one played by professional athlete Bo Jackson as the prison guard who knows who and what Hackman is, and yet treats him somewhat well.

 

Gene Hackman was frankly robbed of an Oscar nomination in this film if you ask me. Sure, his final speech awkwardly seems to want to absolve his repugnant character (and maybe the showiness of it, plus the fact that the film wasn’t a hit worked against him), but the actor nearly makes it work, and is absolutely terrific the rest of the time. It’s remarkable that the same man who can play a bitter, sarcastic, and venomous racist in this film could earlier have played the good ‘ol boy FBI agent who despised characters like this in “Mississippi Burning”. It’s a shame Hackman has seen fit to retire in the 00s, but maybe he felt he had done everything he needed to. He was certainly a damn consistent actor, even if his film’s didn’t always quite measure up to the effort he gave to them as an actor. He consistently stole the show in many of his films; “Superman”, “Bonnie and Clyde”, “The Poseidon Adventure”, “Enemy of the State”, and this film too. I’ll forgive him for “Absolute Power” and “Under Suspicion”. Some might complain that Hackman doesn’t totally disappear into the role, but not everyone is a method actor. All I care about is that he’s convincing and great to watch. Although she’s a little old to be playing Hackman’s daughter (or is he a little young to be playing her father?) at just 11 years his junior, Faye Dunaway gives an excellent and rather haunted performance here. She has tried to bury the past and having it all dredged up again is clearly incredibly painful for her. She plays a woman who has done everything she can to distance herself from her terrible father, but also set up a nice life for herself. There’s a touch of Bette Davis to her in her first scene, no surprise given the Divine Miss Dunaway previously played Joan Crawford. Josef Sommer is utterly wasted in a mere walk-on (the excellent Robert Prosky fares a tad better), but character actors Richard Bradford (who almost always seems to play law enforcement guys) and Raymond J. Barry in particular steal their every scene here. Barry, who is usually rock-solid, is positively chilling in a cameo that isn’t there to show that Hackman’s not so bad, but to show that there are even worse people out there than him. It might seem like a plot contrivance, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t also true to life. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the contribution of the former “Anne Frank” herself, Millie Perkins in a crucial cameo. In fact, her terrific cameo is so damn strong that she makes it hard for audiences to want Hackman to live. That’s not a flaw, I don’t believe the film takes sides until Hackman’s final speech. Up until then it’s only O’Donnell who wants Hackman freed.

 

I didn’t mind the similarly themed “A Time to Kill”, but I’d argue that this Grisham adaptation is slightly better. It’s not the equal of “The Rainmaker” or “Runaway Jury” but it beats “The Firm”, “The Pelican Brief” and “The Gingerbread Man” by miles. See it for Hackman, and also savour the work by Dunaway, Barry, and Bradford. Just ignore Chris O’Donnell in the lead if you can. Helluva memorable opening scene, by the way.

 

Rating: B-