In the broadest sense, John Grisham has written the same story over and over. It goes like this: A decent person finds themselves the David in a David and Goliath story where the opposition is the government, or a shady criminal enterprise, or a huge corporation. That person finds a way, at some cost and compromise, to get what is usually only a partial victory. It has worked, many times over.
His books have been adapted both for film and for television. A new series adaptation of The Rainmaker is arriving this week on USA (and streaming later on Peacock), and, well, it's no Francis Ford Coppola movie.
But a lot of them are really pretty good. How good? This highly opinionated list ranks them and notes, among other factors, their "Grisham score," which reflects how much they feel, entirely subjectively, like Grisham stories. (Disclaimers: I did not include his nonfiction or his non-legal novels, nor did I get my hands on the unsuccessful TV pilot for The Street Lawyer, starring Eddie Cibrian, or the 1995 TV adaptation of The Client, starring JoBeth Williams. (Contrary to the way it often seems, everything is not available to stream somewhere.) I also stuck to the novel adaptations, so I omitted The Gingerbread Man, an adaptation of a story Grisham had written but never published as a novel.)
9. The Firm (TV) (2012, NBC)
Plot: In 2012, NBC made 22 episodes of the sequel series The Firm as a standard network legal drama, where there was always a case of the week plus some ongoing intrigue about Mitch McDeere (Josh Lucas) and the shady firm he worked for — a different shady firm than the one he had escaped years before. (Disclaimer: I have watched the first bunch of episodes and the last one and researched what happened in the interim, which is a lot more of this show than most people experienced.)
Notable supporting cast: Assistant Tammy (played by Holly Hunter in the movie) is played by Juliette Lewis. Callum Keith Rennie, stepping in for David Strathairn, plays Mitch's brother.
Bad guys: Big law firms, sometimes his own clients, Tricia Helfer from Battlestar Galactica
The bottom line: Aside from the suspension of disbelief required to believe that Mitch would stumble his way into another law firm infested with murderers, the attempt to translate Grisham to this format, where the actual story was constantly interrupted by dull little cases for Mitch to fiddle with, did not work at all. Grisham stories are nothing if not propulsive and escalating, and this was sputtering and slow.
Highlight: The sheer audacity to start the season with an unexplained flash-forward of Mitch running with a briefcase while wearing a suit and then end the season with an unexplained flash-forward of Mitch running with a briefcase while wearing a suit in a completely different situation
Lowlight: The endlessly meandering references to "the truth" that nobody will just spit out already
Grisham score: 1
8. The Chamber (1996, directed by James Foley)
Plot: Attorney Adam Hall (Chris O'Donnell) travels to Mississippi to try to prevent the execution of his grandfather (Gene Hackman), who's long been on death row for bombing the office of a Jewish civil rights lawyer in 1967.
Notable supporting cast: Faye Dunaway as Adam's aunt, Lela Rochon as a staffer from the governor's office, and Bo Jackson (!!) as a prison guard. That's right: Bo knows acting.
Bad guys: The death penalty, racists in general and the Ku Klux Klan in particular
The bottom line: The Chamber is the most somber of the Grisham adaptations, and while there is some legal maneuvering and some mystery-solving, much of it is a character piece about a young man trying to figure out how to live alongside his family's dark legacy. The legal thriller elements don't entirely mesh with the heavy story. Still, it's an effort to get into themes, including generations of racism as well as the death penalty, that Grisham has been interested in for his entire career.
Highlight: Gene Hackman, seething and spiteful
Lowlight: Gene Hackman's alarming teeth
Grisham score: 9
7. The Rainmaker (TV) (2025, USA/Peacock)
Plot: Rudy Baylor and his girlfriend finish law school and get jobs in the same evil big law firm. He gets fired and soon finds himself working for a scrappy small firm run by Bruiser (Lana Parrilla), representing a woman whose son supposedly died of an overdose but who is sure there was foul play. Boyfriend and girlfriend end up on opposing sides of the case. He also meets a young woman in an abusive marriage. (Note: They have only offered critics the first five episodes.)
Notable supporting cast: John Slattery plays the head of the big bad firm. Dan Fogler plays a nurse with a dark heart and ... a lot going on.
Bad guys: Not entirely clear yet, but certainly big law firms and insurance companies
The bottom line: This series isn't bad, exactly, but the plot is completely different from the book and movie. Where the tone of the original story is of a scrappy underdog against a big law firm, the series becomes more of a clash between Rudy and his girlfriend about the ethics of their different choices. It also introduces a confusing plot full of murders rather than the bureaucratic evil of the original story, in which a corporate handbook telling workers to refuse claims was enough to cause a tragic death. Moreover, the story of the abused wife felt a little extraneous to the original, and it feels even more extraneous here.
Highlight: John Slattery being an only slightly more wicked version of Roger Sterling from Mad Men
Lowlight: Turning Bruiser into a woman who very quickly ends up in a sex scene in lingerie for no particularly compelling reason
Grisham score: 3
6. Runaway Jury (2003, directed by Gary Fleder)
Plot: Nick Easter (John Cusack) maneuvers his way onto the jury for a big civil case against a gun manufacturer and starts scheming to sell the verdict to the highest bidder.
Notable supporting cast: Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman as the opposing lawyers, Rachel Weisz as Easter's girlfriend and co-conspirator, Nora Dunn as a fellow juror with a flask on her at all times.
Bad guys: Gun manufacturers and their lawyers
Bottom line: There's a pretty big dropoff in quality from The Client to here. It's tough to build an underdog story around a guy who's trying to rig a trial and extort money, even if he thinks it's for a good cause. The movie never quite figures out how Cusack and Weisz are so sure that things are going to turn out the way they plan, and it makes their machinations seem a little less clever. There is also nothing here of Grisham's usual insistence that doing something good requires giving something up, which means his flair for a bittersweet ending doesn't quite come through.
Highlight: Hackman and Hoffman having a spicy confrontation in a courthouse restroom
Lowlight: A somewhat muddled ending
Grisham Score: 6
5. The Client (1994, directed by Joel Schumacher)
Plot: Lawyer Reggie Love (Susan Sarandon) agrees to represent 11-year-old Mark Sway (Brad Renfro), who has information about a mob murder and is being pressured by an ambitious prosecutor (Tommy Lee Jones) to cooperate, risking his own safety.
Notable supporting cast: Mary-Louise Parker as Mark's mother, Bradley Whitford as one of the prosecutor's lackeys, Anthony Edwards as Reggie's assistant, Anthony LaPaglia as an incompetent wannabe mobster
Bad guys: Mafia, grandstanding prosecutor
Bottom line: It makes sense that Grisham would do a book where the underdog is a kid; nobody is more vulnerable and nobody needs more help to navigate the system. Unsurprisingly, Tommy Lee Jones, who appeared in this movie the year after The Fugitive, lends even a very obnoxious prosecutor some welcome notes of humor.
Highlight: The goodbye scene between Renfro and Sarandon, which is genuinely moving
Lowlight: A very silly action sequence set in a boathouse
Grisham Score: 9
4. A Time To Kill (1996, directed by Joel Schumacher)
Plot: Samuel L. Jackson plays Carl Lee Hailey, a father on trial for shooting the violent racists who brutally assaulted his young daughter. Attorney Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) and a helpful law student (Sandra Bullock) defend him.
Notable supporting cast: Kiefer Sutherland as a creep who's trying to reinvigorate the local Klan, Oliver Platt as Jake's cynical buddy, Ashley Judd as Jake's wife, Kevin Spacey as the district attorney
Bad guys: Racists in general and the Ku Klux Klan in particular, an unethical showoff prosecutor
Bottom line: Despite its clunky racial politics, the adaptation of Grisham's first novel makes it easy to understand how Matthew McConaughey instantly became a leading man. Still, much of the most effective drama comes from Jackson, including in a terrific scene where he visits the deputy, played by Chris Cooper, who lost a leg in the shooting — an outcome Carl Lee did not intend, but takes responsibility for.
Highlight: Carl Lee's speech correcting Jake's mistaken impression that Carl Lee considers them a team
Lowlight: Even in a story taking place in a hot climate, a garish quantity of sweat
Grisham Score: 9
3. The Firm (1993, directed by Sydney Pollack)
Plot: New associate Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) discovers that his fancy law firm is up to its eyeballs in organized crime and murder and so forth. You know how it is.
Notable supporting cast: Gene Hackman (who also appears in Runaway Jury and The Chamber) as a tragically compromised attorney, Ed Harris as an FBI guy, Jeanne Tripplehorn as Mitch's wife, Wilford Brimley as the firm's dangerous enforcer
Bad guys: Mafia and their lawyers
Bottom line: The Firm was the book that made Grisham a superstar, and the movie is solid. It does change Grisham's ending, making it easier for Mitch and his wife to continue in a relatively normal life. That either sells out Grisham's repeated theme of sacrificing the life you've built to do the right thing or makes considerably more sense in real life, depending on whom you ask. Also, if you think Tom Cruise has a quirky running style in the Mission: Impossible movies, wait until you see him running in The Firm.
Highlight: Tom Cruise beating Wilford Brimley unconscious with a briefcase
Lowlight: Tom Cruise (or, as it would appear, Tom Cruise's stunt double?) doing gymnastics on the sidewalk while out on the town
Grisham Score: 12 (yes, 12 out of 10)
2. The Rainmaker (1997, directed by Francis Ford Coppola)
Plot: Newly minted Memphis attorney Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) takes the only job he can get, working for a flashy ambulance-chaser named Bruiser (Mickey Rourke). But when Bruiser skips town, Rudy is left alone with paralegal Deck (Danny DeVito) to represent a family whose son died after his insurance company denied coverage for a bone-marrow transplant.
Notable supporting cast: Jon Voight, as the insurance company lawyer, has never been more slimy (even while being eaten by a snake in Anaconda). Roy Scheider briefly appears as an executive so heartless even his folksy blue cardigan seems to hate his guts. Also features Claire Danes as a young woman whose abusive husband (Andrew Shue) has put her in the hospital.
Bad guys: Insurance company and their lawyers
Bottom line: The most successful of the courtroom Grishams, The Rainmaker perfectly captures the writer's vision of the scrappy lawyer outmatched by wicked profiteers, as well as his vision of the law as a grind of depositions and discovery. Here, the biggest drama comes not from chases or guns or even courtroom speeches, but from finding the missing section that's vanished from a company handbook. Damon is excellent and may have the best take on the quintessential Grisham underdog that an actor has come up with so far.
Highlight: A violent outburst from Randy Travis, playing a potential juror
Lowlight: A violent outburst from Andrew Shue
Grisham Score: 10
1. The Pelican Brief (1993, directed by Alan J. Pakula)
Plot: Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) is a law student who stumbles upon the answer to who killed a pair of Supreme Court justices. When those responsible figure out that she's onto them, they come after her, and she goes to journalist Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington) for help.
Notable supporting cast: Stanley Tucci, as an assassin, has never been more evil. Also on hand are a young Cynthia Nixon as Darby's friend, John Lithgow as Gray's editor, and Sam Shepard as Darby's doomed boyfriend. (Sorry, doomed boyfriend; you're doomed.)
Bad guys: Oil magnate and his lawyers, corrupt president and his toadies
Bottom line: The most successful of the non-courtroom Grishams, The Pelican Brief doesn't just bring together two very charismatic leads at the height of their powers. It is carefully plotted and well-paced, and it reveals its larger conspiracy piece by piece. It is a great ride.
Highlight: A parking-garage chase that lets Pakula wink at All The President's Men
Lowlight: Some of Tucci's disguises, which are (intentionally) unattractive
Grisham Score: 10
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