AllMovie

It wasn't until 1992 that Chicago stage actor-director Gary Sinise made his mark in movies: first, with an impressive performance in the sleeper A Midnight Clear; and then as producer, director, and star of an adaptation of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. The latter work was a challenge, in light of the lionized source material as well as the highly regarded 1939 film version starring Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney Jr.. Working from a script by the legendary Horton Foote (To Kill a Mockingbird), Sinise's version is certainly much closer to Steinbeck's work than the earlier version. He makes George the emphasis of the film, and John Malkovich's Lennie is excellently underplayed. Strikingly photographed by Kenneth MacMillan, the film has an uncluttered visual style. After Mice, Sinise would become one of America's most prolific, respected character actors in films such as Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, and The Green Mile.