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I have to admire the brilliance of Stephen King. It was his novels that inspired Frank Darabont to screenplay and direct Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile. I also admire the brilliance of Darabont who seems to be a genius at interpreting King's tales onto celluloid. This story is spell-binding and the performances of the actors were riveting. Its hard to think of a more memorable and imposing stature of an actor than Michael Clarke Duncan who is wonderfully cast in his central role. Hard to imagine that he was a novice actor at this stage of his career. There are plenty of tear-jerking moments throughout this film and it offers up a message to its viewers. 3 hours well spent in the company of this story.

Without knowing too much about the plot, I assumed this was taking De Niro down a familiar trodden path of another "Fokker" type role. How wrong I was! This is a very endearing, gentle and easily watchable escapade that sees an ageing De Niro being given an internship with an e-commerce fashion company and becoming surprisingly useful at bestowing his considerable knowledge to his new colleagues. I can't remember ever seeing De Niro play such a likable role without seemingly any flaws to his character. Hathaway charms her way through the film and there's a nice cameo from Russo as a love interest. A film that doesn't try too hard to be funny and comes across better for it.