Some may think the name for The Green Mile is from its length, over 3 hours and 8 minutes when all is said and done, and a few might feel a bit green from the experience. But in fact, the name of the movie, and the serialized Stephen King novel come from the colored tiles that make up the floor of the death-row block at Louisiana's Cold Mountain Prison.

Tom Hanks stars as Paul Edgecomb, who runs things on The Green Mile in his job as chief guard on E Block. The summer of 1935 brings two things into Edgecomb's life. A very painful urinary infection, and a new inmate. John Coffey, portrayed by Michael Clarke Duncan in a tremendous, breakout performance, towers over everyone and everything on Block E. In spite of his huge size, you see there is something gentle, different about him and this is something that Darabont goes to great lengths to explore.

You can't have an inmate on Death Row without a horrible crime. Coffey was accused and convicted of the brutal rape and murder of two young white girls. That a black man in the South of the 1930s survived to be judged and sentenced to death is surprising in and of itself. But after a miraculous encounter in which Coffey heals Edgecomb's uninary tract infection, the chief guard is troubled at the thought that he may be forced to execute an innocent man. As other examples of Coffey's amazing talents are shown to Edgecomb, he is more and more troubled by what he knows he must ultimately do.

The Depression was a cruel era and in a time and place where a man walks his last mile, you would necessarily find the most foul of men. But the cruelest man of all on the Mile is a young guard named Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchinson). Wetmore, who is the holder of his job solely because his aunt is the wife of the Governor of the State, wants to be lead man on an execution and will stop at nothing to achieve his goal. He is a sadistic man who loves causing others pain. His evil match enters the block in the form of Wild Bill (Sam Rockwell, in an over-the-top, excellent interpretation) as a vicious killer who thrives on conflict and apparently longs to kill again.

The problem with ensemble casts is that there isn't enough time to give every actor their moment in front of the lens. But when you invest over three hours in a movie, the time is less of a problem than you might think. Just as everyone will face their judgment day, every occupant of the Mile, guard and convict alike will have their moment in the spotlight. Darabont gives every actor in his cast their chance to shine and does it in such a way as to get the most out of each of them.

Be warned, there are three executions by electrocution in this movie, all horrific, one ever so much more so than the others. There are also some very ugly moments of violence. But the rest of the movie is of such high quality that even the queasiest of stomachs can handle the violence in order to enjoy the rest of the drama.

Darabont takes his time, but in return we get incredible imagery, a compelling story with great subplots, some light moments with a very talented mouse and some of the most intense dramatic moments in film for some time.

Read beyond this point at your own risk, plot spoilers are present. You may want to stop here and come back after you've seen it yourself. You were warned.

Comparisons between The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption are inevitable. King himself, in a magazine interview, said Frank Darabont has the narrowest specialty in Hollywood, making Stephen King prison movies. Both were stories written by Stephen King and adapted for the screen by Darabont. Both are prison movies. Both center around innocent men. Is King's message that in the brutal, horrific world of killers and other criminals that make up the prisons he writes about, can only those who were there in error be redeemed? Are only the innocent worthy of salvation? Of course that isn't the case, and we are shown this in Shawshank at the end when the guilt and the innocent are reunited, free at last.

We don't get the same simplistic answer to the critical question this time around. Coffey isn't redeemed. In that era, no one wanted to hear that a Black Convict on Death Row didn't really kill his supposed victims. There was no way out for Coffey, or Edgecomb and the ending of Green Mile shows quite dramatically that Edgecomb did pay a price for being unable to stop the execution of Coffey.

The Green Mile is worth every minute it takes to walk down its pondering, plodding path. In the end, you're better for having made the journey.