Nearly a decade too late, Hollywood finally thought it was safe enough to make a movie about AIDS. The film itself was fairly excellent, but it's date of release is embarrassingly late, and American cinema should be ashamed.
The movie itself follows a fairly usual courtroom drama set meal, with its concluding scenes coming as no great surprise. Tom Hanks plays Andrew Beckett, who had AIDS and is working as a lawyer in Phili. He gets fired for it, and possibly for being gay, and the rest of the movie is taken up with him suing his former employers. The character development that I most enjoyed was that of Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) who's one of those slimy accident lawyers who has his own TV ads. He's homophobic, and is initially afraid of the unknown. The scene where he first l earns that Andrew has AIDS is sort of depressingly funny, with him awkwardly keeping tabs on everything Andrew's touched, and recoiling from a handshake. He ends up being cooler though, and the viewer is encouraged to feel more sympathy towards him once he/she sees that he has a family. Before long he's fighting Andrews case, and is as open minded about his "lifestyle" as anyone could apparently be expected to be in the 90s.
Washington's conversion is done very well, and without any cheesiness or repetitive scenes. The two work very well together, and their blossoming friendship is a pleasure to watch. While the two leads are acted very well, most of the supporting actors are fairly forgettable, and none that come to mind are really worthy of note.
The cinematography isn't half bad, and there are several really excellent scenes (in particular the one where Andrew talks to Washington while an opera plays, and the short cuts that help establish that Andrew is sick). Lots of initial close ups help make Andrew look sickly, but as he accepts his fate and Washington learns his lesson the shots - on average - widen out, mimicking their minds. The feeling we're left with is a sad one, but mixed with having achieved something. It's a good feeling to have, as an ending, and left me far more pleased with the movie than how I came into it.
Philadelphia: 52.6