Synopsis
Idealistic young attorney Adam Hall takes on the death row clemency case of his racist grandfather, Sam Cayhall, a former Ku Klux Klan member he has never met.
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Cast
- Chris O'DonnellAdam Hall
- Gene HackmanSam Cayhall
- Faye DunawayLee Cayhall Bowen
- Robert ProskyE. Garner Goodman
- Lela RochonNora Stark
- Bo JacksonSgt. Clyde Packer
- Millie PerkinsRuth Kramer
- David Marshall GrantGov. David McAllister
- Raymond J. BarryRollie Wedge
- Nicholas PryorJudge Flynn F. Slattery
Recommendations
- 70
Washington Post
Delivers the entertaining goods without fuss or frills. - 63
San Francisco Examiner
Hackman is, as ever, a master performer, an actor at the peak of his powers. However, he can't carry the whole movie. - 50
Chicago Sun-Times
The films portray the Klan as criminal, racist and anonymous, but those have always been its selling points; it is not portrayed as boring and stupid. - 50
ReelViews
Mechanical and artificial, and tells you what to think. - 50
The New York Times
Timing does no favors for The Chamber, the John Grisham death row drama that arrives on the heels of a better death row film (''Dead Man Walking'') and a better Grisham adaptation (''A Time to Kill''). But this film's also-ran aspects are partly offset by Gene Hackman's superlative performance. - 50
The A.V. Club
Even more sad is an embarrassingly shrill performance by Faye Dunaway, and an ending which insults the ability of the audience to watch a movie without having a conclusion spoon-fed to them. - 40
Austin Chronicle
An adequate, inoffensive thriller that, every so often, shows itself to be a little smarter than it needs to be… even if it isn't often enough to make this thriller anything more than average. - 40
Los Angeles Times
The Chamber is like a balloon that all the air has leaked out of. Maybe it wasn't magnificent before, but in its current state it is sad indeed.
