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This is a classic David and Goliath story in modern times. The David character is Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon), a fresh out of school lawyer with absolutely no legal experience and his partner Deck Shifflet (Danny DeVito). He is representing a dying young man named Donnie Ray Black. Donnie Ray has leukemia. He has an insurance policy, but the crooked insurance company, Great Benefits, has denied coverage and refused benefits for a life saving bone marrow transplant that had a 90% chance of curing him. Rudy must now go up against Leo Drummond (Jon Voight), Great Benefits' $1000/hour lawyer and his team. The evidence and testimony of the fired employees and the crooked insurance company officials will truly make you sick. The callousness of the insurance company officials and the attitudes with which they just deny claims is blood chilling. This was a great movieRead full review
Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) is fresh out of Memphis State Law School in this adaptation of John Grisham's powerhouse novel. He falls into a number of cases which the movie deals with, but the most important is the case of Donny Ray Black, who is dying of leukemia. Donny has an individual health insurance policy but has been denied a bone marrow transplant over and over by Great Benefit Insurance Company because they say that this type of transplant is experimental and NOT COVERED. Donny's mother, Dot Black, (played by Mary Kay Place), has a letter written to her by the insurance company which accuses her of being stupid, stupid, stupid. This along with testimony by a fired employee of the insurance company, Jackie Lemancyzk (Virginia Madsen) makes your blood boil; she testifies that all initial claims were to be DENIED according to the insurance company policy manual. And finally, the CEO of the company (Roy Scheider)has to read from the policy manual that bone marrow transplants are to be allowed because they are now cost effective. The insurance company relies on the fact that most people would not seek legal help. And too, most people will just let it go when a big company tells them NOT COVERED! The highly paid defense lawyer Leo Drummond (John Voight) tries to overwhelm Rudy with legal magic tricks and smoke and mirrors, but a favorable judge (Danny Glover) bends over backwards to help Rudy as an inexperienced lawyer. But there is one final irony in the movie that you will have to see to believe. In a second subplot of the movie, Rudy meets Kelly Ryker(Clare Danes) as he chases ambulances at the local hospital. She is a very badly abused housewife whom he tries to help and ends up killing her husband in a domestic showdown. In a third subplot, Rudy helps his elderly landlady draft her will. This movie review would not be complete without mentioning Rudy's assistant Deck Schifflet (Danny De Vito) in a great role for him. He was a master at finding the right legal precedent and legal reference in the Tennessee Code and source for objections during the trial. As an almost midget, he provided some comic relief but made the difference many times as Rudy was so inexperienced. This movie needs to be seen now as never before. We are in an era of health care manipulation by big insurance companies with many highly paid employees and with many other people in this country having no insurance because of cost and pre-existing conditions. You will forever be haunted by the face of Donny Ray Black dying of leukemia as he was filmed for the trial and with great pain announcing that he was denied coverage for the procedure that would save his life. The book on which this movie is based was my favorite John Grisham novel. While the movie is not as good as the book, it hit a bullseye in what Mr. Grisham was trying to say and entertained us too. It is a winner!Read full review
Very Good Film - excellent acting and Very Well-Developed Story. My take - based on real life incidents with Big Insurance.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Very very good drama David and Goliath story. Very well-made.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Great movie. Good storyline & great cast.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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