The Client is a 1994 American legal thriller

Legal thriller

The legal thriller is a sub-genre of thriller and crime fiction in which the major characters are lawyers and their employees. The system of justice itself is always a major part of these works, at times almost functioning as one of the characters...

 film directed by Joel Schumacher

Joel Schumacher

Joel T. Schumacher is an American film director, screenwriter and producer.-Early life:Schumacher was born in New York City, the son of Marian and Francis Schumacher. His mother was a Swedish Jew, and his father was a Baptist from Knoxville, Tennessee, who died when Joel was four years old...

, and starring Susan Sarandon

Susan Sarandon

Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...

, Tommy Lee Jones

Tommy Lee Jones

Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....

 and Brad Renfro

Brad Renfro

Brad Barron Renfro was an American actor. He made his film debut in 1994 at age 12 in the lead role of Joel Schumacher's The Client, going on to star in 21 feature films, several short films, and two television episodes during his career. Much of his later career was marred by a pattern of...

 in his film debut. It is based on the novel of the same name

The Client

The Client is a legal thriller written by American author John Grisham, set mostly in Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana...

 by John Grisham

John Grisham

John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American lawyer and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers.John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981 and practiced criminal law for about a decade...

. The film was released in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 on July 20, 1994.

Plot

A street-wise kid, Mark Sway, sees the suicide of Jerome Clifford, a prominent Louisiana lawyer, whose current client is Barry 'The Blade' Muldano, a Mafia hit-man. Before Jerome shoots himself, he tells Mark where the body of Senator Boyd Boyette is buried. Mark escapes, and Clifford shoots himself. Mark is found at the scene, and both the FBI and the Mafia quickly realize that Mark probably knows more than he says. Mark decides he needs a lawyer, and goes looking for one. He finds Reggie Love, who also becomes convinced that Mark knows more than he says, but Mark isn't talking.

Cast

• Susan Sarandon
  Susan Sarandon
  Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
  
   as Regina "Reggie" Love
• Tommy Lee Jones
  Tommy Lee Jones
  Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
  
   as "Reverend" Roy Foltrigg
• Brad Renfro
  Brad Renfro
  Brad Barron Renfro was an American actor. He made his film debut in 1994 at age 12 in the lead role of Joel Schumacher's The Client, going on to star in 21 feature films, several short films, and two television episodes during his career. Much of his later career was marred by a pattern of...
  
   as Mark Sway
• Mary-Louise Parker
  Mary-Louise Parker
  Mary-Louise Parker is an American actress, known for her current lead role on Showtime's television series Weeds portraying Nancy Botwin, for which she has received several nominations and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 2006...
  
   as Dianne Sway
• David Speck as Ricky Sway
• Anthony LaPaglia
  Anthony LaPaglia
  Anthony M. LaPaglia is an Australian actor. He is known for his role as FBI agent Jack Malone on the American TV series Without a Trace, for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama...
  
   as Barry "The Blade" Muldanno
• J. T. Walsh
  J. T. Walsh
  James Thomas Patrick "J. T." Walsh was an American character actor. He appeared in many well-known films, including Nixon, Hoffa, A Few Good Men, Backdraft, Miracle on 34th Street, Breakdown, and Good Morning, Vietnam.Walsh was known for his roles as "quietly sinister white-collar sleazeballs"...
  
   as Jason McThune
• Anthony Heald
  Anthony Heald
  Philip Anthony Mair Heald, known professionally as Anthony Heald , is an American actor known for portraying Hannibal Lecter's jail nemesis, Dr. Frederick Chilton in The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, and for playing assistant principal Scott Guber in David E. Kelley's Boston Public...
  
   as Larry Trumann
• Bradley Whitford
  Bradley Whitford
  Bradley Whitford is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his roles as Deputy White House Chief of Staff Josh Lyman on the NBC television drama The West Wing, as Danny Tripp on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, as Dan Stark in the Fox police buddy-comedy The Good Guys, as...
  
   as Thomas Fink
• Anthony Edwards
  Anthony Edwards
  Anthony Charles Edwards is an American actor and director. He has appeared in various movies and television shows, including Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Top Gun, Zodiac, Revenge of the Nerds, Northern Exposure and ER.-Early life:Edwards was born in Santa Barbara, California, the son of Erika...
  
   as Clint Von Hooser
• Micole Mercurio as Momma Love
• Ossie Davis
  Ossie Davis
  Ossie Davis was an American film actor, director, poet, playwright, writer, and social activist.-Early years:...
  
   as Judge Harry Roosevelt
• Will Patton
  Will Patton
  William Rankin "Will" Patton is an American actor.-Life and career:Patton was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the eldest of three children. His father is Bill Patton, a playwright and acting/directing instructor who was a Lutheran minister and served as a chaplain at Duke University...
  
   as Sergeant Hardy
• Dan Castellaneta
  Dan Castellaneta
  Daniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble,...
  
   as Slick Moeller
• Ron Dean
  Ron Dean
  Ron Dean is an American film and television actor. He appeared in such movies as Risky Business, The Breakfast Club, Cocktail, The Babe, The Fugitive, The Client, and The Dark Knight. He also appeared on the U.S. TV show Early Edition as Det...
  
   as Uncle Johnny Sulari
• Kim Coates
  Kim Coates
  Kim Coates is a Canadian-American actor who has worked in both Canadian and American movies and television series. He has worked on Broadway portraying Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire and in the lead role of Macbeth performed at the Stratford Theatre...
  
   as Paul Gronke
• William H. Macy
  William H. Macy
  William Hall Macy, Jr. is an American actor and writer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo. He is also a teacher and director in theater, film and television. His film career has been built mostly on his appearances in small, independent films, though...
  
   as Dr. Greenway
• Kimberly Scott
  Kimberly Scott
  Kimberly Aileen Scott is an American actress.-Life and career:Scott was born in Texas. She attended school at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and the University of Texas before earning a post-graduate degree from the Yale School of Drama.She has appeared in films such as The Abyss, Gross Anatomy,...
  
   as Doreen
• Walter Olkewicz
  Walter Olkewicz
  Walter Olkewicz is an actor who played Marko in Wizards and Warriors and Coach Wordman in Making the Grade. He also guest starred in many TV shows including Night Court, Seinfeld, ER, and Who's The Boss...
  
   as Jerome "Romey" Clifford

Box office performance

The film was a financial success, earning $92,115,211 domestically and an additional $25,500,000 overseas.

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews.

Awards

For her work in the film, Sarandon was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress

Academy Award for Best Actress

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

 and won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role

BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role

Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :...

.

Adaptions

The film spawned a TV series of the same name, starring JoBeth Williams

JoBeth Williams

JoBeth Williams is an American film and television actress and director, and current President of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation.-Early life:...

 and John Heard. However, the show lasted only one season (1995–1996).