Back when THE FIRM was coming out, the John Grisham books seemed to be all the rage as great "airplane reading" because they got you into the story and moved quickly, and of course there's always something compelling about legal goings-on -- as long as they're someone else's legal goings-on. And at the time, I was doing a fair amount of traveling for business, so I was the perfect target for these fast reads. (My other true favorites, though, were the lengthy Robert Ludlum novels, which I look forward to returning to sometime.)
So I had read THE FIRM, along with PELICAN BRIEF and a couple of other titles that escape me at the moment. And I remember liking the movie, but I also have a nagging memory that I felt I had been held in greater suspense while reading the book. But that often happens when film adaptations have to leave out detail that feeds the reader but not the viewer. Anyway, seeing the film in recent years, I've had an even greater appreciation for it. And yes, wonderful casting. I see this now and always wish Wilford Brimley had done more serious or bad-guy roles.