As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me.  As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there.  Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy.  Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering.  In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

TODAY’S CRITIC: Lafronda Stumn

Lafronda Stumn is a student at Madisonville Community College and intends to graduate with an Associate's degree in Associate of the Arts. She plans on earning a Bachelors Degree in Motion Picture Studies and English at Wright State University. Her favorite Directors are Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Spike Lee, and her favorite actors are Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, and Halle Berry. Lafronda contacted this page looking for a place to get published and I enjoy giving people that very kind of opportunity. This is her 15th guest review for Every Movie Has a Lesson. Welcome as always, Lafronda!

HER REVIEW: The Green Mile

Tom Hanks is one of the most durable and reliable actors working in the industry today. I can't remember a time that Hanks has given a bad performance in a movie. I think Hanks's performance in The Green Mile is one of his best and heartwarming film performance.

Hanks stars as Paul Edgecomb as correctional officer at the death row of the infamous penitentiary Cold Mountain that is famous for its lime green floor, nicknamed the film’s title. Edgecomb is married to housewife Jan (Bonnie Hunt) and his son has gone off to college.  In a Louisiana, his fellow guards include Brutus (David Morse), Harry (Jeffery DeMunn), and newcomer Percy (Doug Hutchinson), who doesn't treat the inmates humanely and is a constant bully, despite his small stature.

Several colorful characters are on death row, including an indigenous man (Graham Greene), a genuinely demented man Wild Bill (Sam Rockwell), and a gentle black giant in the name of John Coffey (Michael Clark Duncan). He has an innocent aura about his demeanor. At first, Paul sees him as just a simpleton.

Paul has a severe bladder infection, and for some reason, will not go to the doctor to treat it. The disease gets worse and worse, and they also suffer from a high fever. Coffey grabs him and heals his ailment with his hands. Paul's bladder illness is cured.

Paul gets to know Coffey on a personal level. Paul believes in Coffey's innocence and goes to see the lawyer who defended him, Burt Hammersmith (Gary Sinise). Hammersmith feels Coffey is guilty because of Coffey being black. He has little sympathy for his plight. Paul discusses his recovered health with Brutus and Harry. They're skeptical. There's a little mouse that comes into the prison. The guards try to catch him to no avail. An inmate on death row, Delacroix (Michael Jeter), becomes the mouse's owner. 

As a result, Delacroix finds excellent companionship with the mouse until the demur bully Percy steps on him, and Coffey revives the mouse. Now the guards believe in Coffey's healing powers. These incidences make Paul feel that Coffey can help the Warden Hal Moore's' wife Melinda, who is suffering from the terminal brain. Tumor.

There are many great scenes, but difficult ones as well, in The Green Mile, including a flashback to John Coffey at the murder scene where two little girls were murdered. Also, a scene where Paul gets up from the middle of the night rushes outside to relieve himself from the intense pain of a bladder infection (back in the 1930s the toilet was out of homes)

This is an electrocution scene of one of the inmates' characters in the film. It is one of the most brutal and realistic portrayals of electrocution. The scene is difficult to watch, and it will make you think twice about the death penalty.

At a picnic dinner, at Paul House with his friends at work. Paul discusses away for Coffey to escape from prison to heal the warden's wife, Melinda. Harry has reservations. Additionally, another flashback is on who is the real killer of those two little girls, Coffey's courtesy. Paul sees who is responsible. Likewise, one of the correctional officers goes into a trance and does something drastic to one of the prisoners on death row.

The film is written and directed by Frank Darabont. The director adapted the book The Green Mile written by the great horror author Stephen King. Darabont focuses on the spiritual images and scenes that leave the viewer with great warmth and empathy for Paul's main character and especially the character of John Coffey. 

Duncan's performance is the key to why his film is excellent. Duncan portrays a man with tremendous spiritual gifts with the healing of his hands. Duncan exudes compassion for his plight, and the audience is rooting for him to survive death row. 

I observed John Coffey's necklace J.C. It is a symbol of the savior Jesus Christ. The film does a great job of people of all races can be examples of how to live with compassion, innocence, and good-heartedness as what Christ wants in all of his children.

CONCLUSION

Thank you again, Lafronda! You are welcome anytime. Friends, if you see a movie that I don't see and want to be featured on my website, hit up my website's Facebook page and you can be my next GUEST CRITIC!