The setup is a more than a little familiar. Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon from Courage Under Fire) is a struggling Memphis law student who joins a firm of ambulance chasers simply because there are no other opportunities. His mentor is a disgruntled former insurance company employee named Deck Shiffler (Danny DeVito, at his sleazy best). Deck knows has an encyclopedic knowledge of the Memphis legal system, but he can’t pass the bar exam.

Shortly after passing the test himself, Rudy winds up in a situation Johnnie Cochran couldn’t get him out of. Rudy and Deck have the unenviable task of pleading the case of a dying man against an insurance firm that’s as large as it is crooked. They have an ace legal team (led by a suitably smooth Jon Voight) and a vast arsenal of dirty tricks. If the stress of pursuing justice against such formidable odds weren’t enough, Rudy gets personally involved with a domestic abuse case that could endanger both his career and his health.

You can tell where the story’s going when Damon’s voiceover begins. Fortunately, Coppola injects a healthy dose of cynical humor that keeps The Rainmaker from sinking into the histrionic excesses that have tainted some of the other Grisham adaptations like A Time to Kill and The Chamber.

This film doesn’t have the explosions, hair-raising chases or flying bullets that have characterized its predecessors. Instead, Coppola chooses to concentrate on the characters and some of the less honorable tendencies of the legal profession. He also has a way of making even some of the most hackneyed or maudlin scenes become palatable.

The fact that he gets the most out of his able cast doesn’t hurt. For example, Claire Danes plays the abused wife with enough sincerity and dignity that the situation doesn’t seem nearly as forced on the screen as it might on paper. Elmer Bernstein’s score is oppressive, but a strong, but not overbearing sense of atmosphere compensates.