Entertaining prison melodrama, overwhelmingly obvious and easy emotionality.

As if Freeman's explanatory voiceover wasn't enough, Darabont yells at us how we should feel about the movie and what we should think of each scene. The emotion of the scenes is thrown at us like slaps, in case we don't get it. The ambiguity, the understanding, the subtlety do not enter the universe of the director (in addition, the screenwriter of the film).

It's a film as correct as it is flat, with the aversion to risk, the standardized narrative style and the obvious tone of a television product.

The best are the performances: Freeman and Robbins. The worst, that shot-by-shot need to win over the public by giving it all away, to erase any edge of the story that might show the least ambivalence of the characters.

The educated upper-class banker is able, with tenacity, effort and intelligence, to create a habitable environment step by step in the harsh prison reality, with stupid jailers and teammates.

I have never understood the critical success of the film.