> The Clien

> A legal thriller based on the 1993 novel of the same name by prolific
> American author John Grisham (who’s work adapted to film made bank at the
> box office in the first half of the 90’s including The Firm, The
> Pelican Brief and A Time to Kill), The Client follows a
> handful of plot threads with the two primary ones centering around a young
> boy (Brad Renfro) who accidentally gets entangled with a mob plot and thus
> becomes the prime witness for a court case. For any faults that the film
> has, the cast is absolutely stacked with “oh, that person!!” players for
> the mid-90’s including Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Sarandon, Mary-Louise
> Parker, Will Patton, Bradley Whitford, William H. Macy, Will Patton, J.T
> Walsh and Anthony Heald… unfortunately the film itself is a slog to get
> through and honestly should not have been two hours. I ended up skipping
> around after the first half hour, if that tells you anything. Director
> Joel Schumacher (yes, THAT Schumacher) does try to inject some style into
> the proceedings but it’s not enough to save the picture which apparently
> was felt at the time as the film did well enough commercially but was not
> a mega hit of the same level as earlier Grisham adaptations had been.

I saw "The Client" but remember very little of it, except for a hospital chase sequence that's a direct ripoff of a superior sequence in "Coma".

> Looking for Richard (1996)

> Taking a completely different direction from all the prior films I’ve
> covered on this journey… how about a documentary? Not only a documentary,
> but one about William Shakespeare’s Richard III (the one with the
> “my kingdom for a horse!!!” line) and starring/directed by Al Pacino?
> Sounds great and the few meager clips I could find on YouTube look good…
> too bad I couldn’t watch it anywhere in full. Lots of noted Shakespeare
> actors are interviewed along with clips from a performance starring Pacino
> in the title role and some “on the street” interviews with random people
> (admittedly these last bits feel rather cringe, from what I saw). Anyway,
> the doc was apparently well received back in ’96 though seems to have
> fallen by the wayside since.

> Of course the real star here, for us at least, is Howard Shore tackling
> the rich and unenviable task of writing music to accompany The Bard’s
> work… no-matter how tangentially it may be. To this end, I’m happy to
> report that… it’s rather good. Unless there’s a prior score that I’m not
> familiar with (quite possible), this is the first instance of Shore
> showcasing his mastery of large scale orchestral and choral writing which
> of course would end up the cornerstones of a little indie project called
> Lord of the Rings the following decade. With that in mind, Looking for
> Richard is a powerful work that does, sadly, falter slightly with
> Shore’s nasty habit of letting the material meander somewhat in the middle
> section though the intensity remains for the album’s full 45 minutes. For
> fans of LotR, there’s several early fragments of ideas that would blossom
> in those later works here including a full passage near the end that’s
> essentially a chunk of the used prologue to Fellowship of the Ring
> (the opening track of the 2001 CD). Outside of the inclusion of mixed
> adult choir, most of the remainder of the score is more firmly rooted in
> Shore’s drama and thriller stylings of the time which itself is
> interesting to hear brought to true operatic heights (even moreso than
> The Fly (1986) ).

> The only real stumbling block that keeps this from earning a higher rating
> is that meandering middle portion of the album and that this is another
> Shore offering where the themes are a tad too nebulous for its own good.
> Those issues aside, I still highly recommend everyone checkout Looking
> for Richard at least once to hear the midway point between “old Shore”
> and the grand weaver of epic tapestries most of us know and adore him for
> in the following decade.

> SCORE:
> 3 1/2 out of 5

I had the good fortune of finding a CD of "Looking for Richard", and, yes, the style is a welcome precursor to Shore's Middle Earth scores.