The Firm

The first of what would become a virtual microgenre unto itself—the John Grisham adaptation—remains one of the best legal thrillers of the 1990s thanks to the intelligent direction of veteran craftsman Sydney Pollack and the star power of Tom Cruise. He plays Mitch McDeere, a brilliant and ambitious Harvard Law grad who, driven by a fierce desire to bury his working-class past, joins a small, prosperous Memphis firm that affords him and his wife (Jeanne Tripplehorn) an affluent lifestyle beyond their wildest dreams. But when FBI agents confront him with evidence of corruption and murder within the company, Mitch sets out to find the truth in a deadly crossfire between the FBI, the mob, and a force that will stop at nothing to protect its interests: the firm itself.