The Chamber

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The Chamber

R

1996

1h 51m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

13%

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24 Reviews

39%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

Young lawyer Adam Hall (Chris O'Donnell) launches a legal appeal for his racist grandfather, Sam Cayhall (Gene Hackman), a former Ku Klux Klan member he has never met. Accused of killing two young Jewish boys years earlier, Sam meets his grandson in a Mississippi prison on death row, and the atmosphere is tense. Despite having no sympathy for the older man, Adam has other motives for defending his grandfather that have to do with his own father's suicide.

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Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: C

Sep 7, 2011

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

Variety

Lacking the surface glitz, attention-grabbing plot and star power of John Grisham's previous adaptations, Folley's film will also suffer due to comparisons with the similarly-themed and better Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking, released last year.

Rated: 2/5

Mar 8, 2006

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Mick LaSalle

San Francisco Chronicle

Rated: 1/4

Jun 18, 2002

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Mal Vincent

The Virginian-Pilot

A familiar Death Row location, but it handles itself with a good deal more levity, and believability, than the other Grisham melodramas.

Rated: 3/4

Mar 2, 2022

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Caffeinated Clint

Film Threat

Rated: 2/5

May 6, 2005

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Chris Barsanti

Filmcritic.com

Rated: 2/5

Jan 18, 2004

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David D

Great movie. Gene Hackman is a brilliant actor. The movie is suspenseful dramatic and even poignant. Hackman's character is very remorseful and regretful for his past mistakes. And he even for a moment shows compassion towards his daughter for a past transgression that left her with extreme guilt.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/17/24

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steve d

The acting is good but there is very little to the story.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Audience Member

This movie acts as a curiosity, since Gene Hackman was originally offered the role of Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, instead of Anthony Hopkins. So if you want an inkling of what could have been, this is a good movie to watch. But, as always, Chris O'Donnell is just bland. I can't believe he was considered for the lead in Men In Black before Will Smith.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

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jay s

Enjoyed the movie. Hackman is brilliant as ususal, just like Chris O'Donnell. I got the taste of a pinch of Dixie. As European, see the ugliness of our race conserved for too long in the US. The supremacist white. Were we really so superior?

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Not the most likable of Grisham films, but it keeps your interest. A bit unsettling and I wasn't sure what to think about it. (First and only viewing - 8/10/2019)

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

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don s

I found this to be a touching story of a grandson, who is a lawyer, trying to save the grandfather, an admitted KKK member and child killer on death row, who he doesn't even know. There are layers to the family story that unfold throughout the movie leading these two philosophically opposed men to grudgingly respect each other. The story begins at 28 days until gas chamber and ends with a last-ditch effort to save the old man. Gripping performances by O'Donnell and Hackman.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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James Foley

Director

Chris O'Donnell

Adam Hall

Gene Hackman

Sam Cayhall

Faye Dunaway

Lee Cayhall Bowen

Robert Prosky

E. Garner Goodman

Raymond J. Barry

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Synopsis

Young lawyer Adam Hall (Chris O'Donnell) launches a legal appeal for his racist grandfather, Sam Cayhall (Gene Hackman), a former Ku Klux Klan member he has never met. Accused of killing two young Jewish boys years earlier, Sam meets his grandson in a Mississippi prison on death row, and the atmosphere is tense. Despite having no sympathy for the older man, Adam has other motives for defending his grandfather that have to do with his own father's suicide.

Director: James Foley
Producer: John Davis, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard
Screenwriter: William Goldman, Chris Reese
Production Co: Universal Pictures, Davis Entertainment, Imagine Entertainment
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 19, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $14.4M
Runtime: 1h 51m
Sound Mix: Stereo, Surround

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