i do not read the book and i haven not read a grisham novel since the ninety ( when i be in high school ) . that be say and i have enjoy hiss film adaptation in the past particularly runaway jury and the rainmaker and and a time to kill . i just saw the chamber last night on amc and i have to admit it be incredibly weak . the acting be awful chris odonnell do not carry the lead well at all and and faye dunaway and gene hackman be also a great disappointment . in dunaway and hackamn last scene together when hackman start cry i almost start laugh . this movie be completely unable to spur any sympathy in me for cahall ( hackman ) . the screenplay be extremely cliché and boring . i have to agree with other poster on this site about the ridiculousness of the concept that the state of mississippi sponsor murder in the 1960s . and bo jackson a the token black guy who see the good in an old racist and prove that the old man can like black people be just stupid . this movie wouldn not have be cut edge even if it come out in the seventy or maybe early eighty . sadly the clichés of racism and family dysfunction together with mediocre act and write make this movie a snoozer .