The Green Mile

Set in a Louisiana prison in 1935, this grossly overlong, but masterful sentimental fantasy is clearly aimed at the Forrest Gump audience. Tom Hanks plays a warden who forms a life-affirming relationship with a condemned black prisoner, on death row for the murder of two little girls. Suspension of disbelief is essential if you're to enjoy Frank Darabont's reverential adaptation of Stephen King's 1996 novel — all the wardens are angels, bar one. Yet Darabont, directing his first film since The Shawshank Redemption (also a Stephen King prison drama), cleverly manipulates our emotions and only the very hard-hearted will remain dry-eyed throughout or unshocked by the harrowing execution scenes. The film received four Oscar nominations, including best picture and a well-deserved best supporting actor nod for then-newcomer Michael Clarke Duncan as the convicted child-killer.

Immaculately done, well-acted fantasy of redemption, suffused with a sickly religiosity; it fails to justify its inordinate length.