A Man, a Mouse, a Mile, Panama

It seems the old adage was wrong. Lightning does indeed strike twice.

In the case of director Frank Darabont, it just took a little while for the lightning to strike again. Five years, to be exact.

The initial flash came in 1994, when the critically acclaimed Shawshank Redemption launched Darabont's big-screen directorial career. The adaptation of the Stephen King prison drama received seven Academy Award nominations, leaving fans and critics alike wondering: "How is he going to top this?"

The answer, it turned out, was pretty simple: adapt another Stephen King prison drama.

Based on the 1996 best-selling serialized novel, The Green Mile is Frank Darabont's second flash of lightning. Unlike The Shawshank Redemption, however, The Green Mile climbs over and beyond the high walls of typical prison drama fare. There is a mystical element that injects complexity into a movie that, otherwise, you could have sworn you'd seen before.

But yes, it's dramatic. Yes, it's touching. Yes, it's heart-wrenching, tear-jerking, etc. But it's so much more. As Tom Hanks remarks in the promotional trailer, "This is the story of a miracle."

The miracle takes place in a 1935 Southern prison, where the head guard on death row, Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks), is given a new perspective on life, fittingly, by a man sentenced to death--a larger-than-life inmate named John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan). Convicted for the unthinkable murder of two little girls, Coffey is placed on the Green Mile, the stretch of walkway that brings death row prisoners from their cells to the electric chair (usually called the last mile, but this particular one has green floor tiles). The unique bond that evolves between the sympathetic Edgecomb and the unexpectedly gentle Coffey forms the basis for the psychological, spiritual and moral exploration that permeates the film. The strong ensemble cast is further enhanced by the performances of David Morse (Contact), who plays Brutus Howell, Edgecomb's friend and another sympathetic guard; James Cromwell (Babe), who fills the role of Warden Hal Moores; and Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump), who briefly appears as John Coffey's public defender. The antagonists are a cruel prison guard named Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison) and an insane killer known as Wild Bill (Sam Rockwell).

Following the success of Saving Private Ryan, Hanks turns in yet another Oscar bid with his believable portrayal of the everyman, Paul Edgecomb. The model of fairness and discipline, Edgecomb is the ideal man to be charged with one of society's toughest responsibilities. As the caretaker of doomed criminals, his job requires him to grapple with death and justice on a daily basis, precepts that are often philosophically opposed. He suffers everything that a normal man suffers - pangs of conscience, doubts in the human capacity for good, and the occasional urinary tract infection. (When he scrambles into the bathroom, doubled over and grimacing at the excruciating effort of relieving himself - well, the audience feels his pain.) Duncan, in his breakout role (after several supporting roles in films like Armageddon), succeeds in winning over the sympathies of the audience with an inspiring performance. John Coffey is a walking paradox - his monstrous frame is capable of flattening a man, and yet he is afraid of the dark. Using his imposing physical presence, Duncan illustrates this juxtaposition while communicating the integrity that defines his character - a nave innocence contrasted with a keenly insightful spirit and a loving soul. In Edgecomb's eyes, this contrast, along with Coffey's miraculous "gift," casts doubt onto his alleged guilt, allowing him to see Coffey not as a murderer, but as a man wrongfully accused.

Stylistically, the cinematography is very similar to what we saw in The Shawshank Redemption: tight close-ups, wide establishing shots, innovative camera angles. Darabont is a master of filming grand, sweeping epics in relatively confined spaces, and he stays true to form here. The pacing is deliberate, allowing the audience to fully experience all the tensions and hardships of life on Death Row. Still, Darabont is careful not to waste any screentime on dull moments; there's plenty of action to offset the unusually long running time. As the film progresses, the tone remains predominantly serious (befitting a story set on Death Row), interspersed with lighter scenes of optimism and hope. Edgecomb's urinary problems, painful as they are to watch, provide a small degree of comic relief, but the main source of smiles comes in the form of a mouse named Mr. Jingles. The curious mouse, discovered on the floor of the Green Mile by the guards, becomes the pet of one of the inmates, Eduard Delacroix (Michael Jeter). The image of a convicted killer giggling uncontrollable over the antics of his pet mouse is a poignant one, and it remains as a symbolic notion that even a place as somber as the Green Mile is not totally devoid of innocence and laughter.

The strength of The Green Mile lies in its spiritual core. Here, Stephen King's affinity for all things supernatural and unexplainable shines through. John Coffey possesses the mysterious ability to heal wounds and illnesses with his touch; his hand starts to glow with a mystical light, and his healings are nothing short of miraculous. His touch cures Edgecomb's urinary tract infection and revives a dead Mr. Jingles, and his power is so strong that light bulbs in his proximity shatter before the sheer concentrated energy. After each healing, the harmful spirits, in the form of a black swarm, are coughed up and released from Coffey's mouth. (Willing suspension of disbelief? Sure, why not.) Convincing his fellow guards of John's powers, Edgecomb arranges to have John secretly brought to the terminally ill wife of Warden Hal Moores, who is suffering from a brain tumor. In a moving scene, he revives the warden's wife and convinces all those present that his miraculous gift is real.

A gift from God? That's certainly what it seems like. Coffey truly seems to be a Christ figure - a man with mysterious origins, a pure soul, and the power to heal. Furthermore, there are two executions that take place before John is scheduled to die - in both cases, the issue of penance is key. Perhaps they represent the two thieves who died alonside Jesus? The allusion seems too obvious to ignore.

John Coffey's powers extend beyond mere healing - he also possesses the ability to sense evil in others. He sees the violent thoughts within the deranged Wild Bill, and is repulsed by the realization that there is more to his murderous past than he is letting on. In Percy (perhaps the most despicably obnoxious character ever to grace the silver screen), he recognizes the arrogance and sheer malice that is most intensely manifested in his cruelty towards the inmate Eduard Delacroix. First, he breaks his fingers with his billy club; then, he crushes Mr. Jingles beneath his boot, necessitating John's magic to bring him back; and, most horribly of all, he neglects to wet the sponge during Delacroix's execution (the wet sponge on top of the prisoner's head conducts electricity directly to the brain, allowing death to occur sooner and less painfully), resulting in a gruesome electrocution scene. John alone recognizes the evil that is everywhere, and the burden of this insight weighs heavily on his soul.

The Green Mile is a place of redemption, where guilty men receive a final opportunity to repent. It is here that John Coffey transcends the black and white of this world, elevating the struggle between good and evil to a spiritual plane. During the climactic scene in which Edgecomb takes Coffey's hand through the bars of his cell, Coffey rewards Edgecomb's faith in him by letting him see the evil that he sees. With sparks flying in the background, Edgecomb glimpses Coffey's insight, and realizes the truth.

Ultimately, Edgecomb must make a difficult choice in deciding between duty and right. To follow through with the execution of John Coffey would be to kill an innocent man - yet there is nothing that he can legally do to prevent it. Edgecomb himself expresses fear of damnation, for how could God forgive him for killing one of his messengers? Needless to say, Edgecomb's emotional turmoil is palpable, and his final decision forever impacts his life.

The only flaw preventing Darabont's triumphant second effort from being perfect is the manner in which the story begins and ends. Told as a flashback by an older Edgecomb sixty years after the fact, the story opens with scenes that take place in the present. This set-up at the beginning of the film is fine, but the ending just doesn't work. Immediately after the final scene from 1935, the story shifts back to the present for a wrap-up that comes across as contrived (the same problem plagued Saving Private Ryan). Instead of ending the film in the present, it would have been much more powerful to cut it off in the past. Still, despite this minor blemish, the film is a spectacular cinematic achievement, and although Oscar time is still far away, The Green Mile seems destined to grab the Academy's attention.

So, not only did lightning strike twice for Frank Darabont, it struck in almost exactly the same spot - a prison, conjured in the mind of Stephen King. Which naturally begs the familiar question: "How is he going to top this?"

Time will tell if lightning strikes in threes.