the firm

Director: sydney pollack

Actor: tom cruise,jeanne tripplehorn,gene hackman,hal holbrook

Data Published: Wed Jun 30 1993

Genres: Drama,Mystery,Thriller

Key Words: seduction,frame up,briefcase,law,fbi

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106918/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Firm_(1993_film)

Description: The Firm is a movie starring Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Gene Hackman. A young lawyer joins a prestigious law firm only to discover that it has a sinister dark side.

Plot: Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) is a young man from an impoverished background, but with a promising future as a lawyer. About to graduate from Harvard Law School near the top of his class, he receives a generous job offer from Bendini, Lambert & Locke, a small boutique firm in Memphis specializing in accounting and tax law. He and his wife, Abby (Jeanne Tripplehorn), move to Memphis and Mitch sets to work studying to pass the Tennessee bar exam. Avery Tolar (Gene Hackman), one of the firm's senior partners, becomes his mentor and begins introducing Mitch to BL&L's professional culture, which demands complete loyalty, strict confidentiality, and a willingness to charge exceptional fees for their services. Seduced by the money and perks showered on him, including a house and car, he is at first totally oblivious to the more sinister side of his new employer, although Abby has her suspicions. Mitch passes the bar exam and begins working long hours that put a strain on his marriage. Working closely with Avery, Mitch learns that most of the firm's work involves helping wealthy clients hide large amounts of money in off-shore shell corporations and other dubious tax-avoidance schemes. While on a trip to the Cayman Islands on behalf of a client, Mitch is seduced by a local woman and cheats on Abby. Unbeknownst to Mitch, this encounter has been arranged by the firm's sinister security chief, Bill DeVasher (Wilford Brimley), who later uses photos of Mitch's beach tryst with the woman as blackmail to keep him quiet about the firm's questionable, even illegal, activities. Mitch realizes he is now trapped, but after two associates of the firm die under mysterious circumstances, he is approached by FBI agents who inform him that while some of BL&L's business is legitimate, their biggest client is the Morolto Mafia family from Chicago. The firm's partners, as well as most of the associates, are all complicit in a massive tax fraud and money-laundering scheme. The two associates who died had learned about the firm's dark side, and were killed to keep them from talking. The FBI agents warn Mitch that his house, car, and office have probably all been bugged. The FBI pressures Mitch to provide the Bureau with evidence they can use to go after the Moroltos and bring down BL&L. Mitch knows he faces a stark choice. If he works with the FBI, he believes that even if he stays alive, he will have to disclose information about the firm's legitimate clients—thus breaking the attorney–client privilege and risking disbarment. However, the FBI warns him that if he stays with the firm, he will almost certainly go to jail when the FBI takes down both the firm and the Moroltos. Either way, his life as he knows it is over, and he agrees to cooperate with the FBI in return for $1.5 million and the release of his imprisoned brother Ray in Arkansas. Desperate to find a way out, Mitch inadvertently stumbles on a solution when one of his clients complains that he was billed for an extra several hours of fees, as part of the firm's money-laundering services for the Moroltos. Mailing these padded bills to the firm's clients is considered to be mail fraud, which would expose the firm to RICO charges. Mitch begins secretly copying the firm's billing records, but he is unmasked when a prison guard on the Moroltos' payroll alerts DeVasher after Mitch's brother Ray is transferred to FBI custody without the usual formalities being followed. Evading DeVasher and his thugs, Mitch meets with the Morolto brothers and, presenting himself as a loyal attorney looking out for his clients' best interests, tells them that his contact with the FBI and his copying of the firm's files were merely an attempt to expose the firm's illegal overbilling. Mitch asks the Moroltos for permission to turn over their billing invoices in order to help the FBI make their case against the firm. He reveals that he has made his own copies of the files, but assures them that as long as he is alive, any other information he knows about their legal affairs is covered under attorney-client privilege and will never be revealed. Convinced thus, the Moroltos agree to guarantee Mitch's safety and let him give the FBI all the evidence it needs to prosecute the firm. Since the attorney-client privilege doesn't apply when a lawyer knows about ongoing criminal activity, Mitch is able to keep his status as a lawyer. The film ends as the McDeeres leave their house in Memphis and return to Boston, driving the same well-used car in which they arrived in Memphis.