The Rainmaker

1997 court movie

Rating: 14/20

Plot: A rookie lawyer and his greasy little person sidekick open up their own practice and take on an insurance company and their big-shot lawyers for their first case. There's also a romantic subplot because every movie needs that.

Rainmaker? I don't even remember a scene in which it rains during this movie, so who's the titular rainmaker? Maybe I needed to watch this a third time. That's right--Josh loaned me this to watch and insisted that I watch with the commentary from Francis Ford. That's what his other friends and I call him--Francis Ford. Turns out, he actually wanted me to watch a 15-20 minute "making up" extra instead. I usually don't watch any bonus features on dvd's unless I'm guaranteed nudity, if Nicolas Cage is involved, or if there's both Nicolas Cage and nudity, but it was Josh who's somewhat trustworthy. I did appreciate the insight, I suppose, and enjoyed hearing details about how Francis Ford had his actors circle-up and toss an imaginary ball around or the difficulties of raising and lowering the courtroom ceiling to make Jon Voight more imposing. Voight's plays smarmy so well, but maybe it is that lowered ceiling or Francis Ford's balls or the low camera angles. I actually think everybody's really good here--Stockwell, Glover, Damon, Devito--even when the story gets a little tacky or if the characters are essentially cartoons with good guys and bad guys who are a little too well-defined. I also thought chunks of the Claire Danes subplot didn't make a lot of sense, and it climaxed in an apartment-demolishing clash of fisticuffs that was a little over the top. And I kind of hated the music. I can't decide what's grosser--Danny Devito or the Farfisa organ. And think about this one, if you've got the stomach for it: Danny Devito playing a Farfisa organ.

That actually gives me a terrific idea--a movie called Danny Devito Playing a Farfisa Organ. It's probably a horror film, at the very least a vaguely-horrifying film, and I'll put "from the makers of Paranormal Activity 5" in the trailer so that people will remember to shit before the movie starts instead of during the moment where Devito's chubby little fingers first touch those keys.

"From the makers of twisted minds that brought you Paranormal Activity 5, comes a nightmare so real. . ."

(one of those echoing footsteps sound effects accompany this image)

". . .so skin-crawlingly terrifying. . ."

(another echoey footstep noise)

". . .that you'll be not even be able to smell the shit in your own pants over your screams." 

But I digress. Aside from those caricatures and the aforementioned tackiness in storytelling, this really is sprinkled with a lot of great moments, mostly the ones where a too-cool Damon is calling Voight on his shit. The characters are likable, and the story's got the right amounts of drama and humor although I didn't understand most of the humor until after Francis Ford explained them to me in the commentary. The Rainmaker is doe-eyed and oozing with Hollywood sensibilities, but that's really part of its charm. It goes down smooth. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to throw an imaginary ball at my wife and make a bird noise.