this film is very convincing hokum. nice, gentle, inoffensive and insubstantial story about prison life - I came away feeling prison was a place where nobody says f##k or fears bending over to pick up the soap. check out Freeman, in the token performance of his career, neatly basking in the falsely accused smart white gentleman robbins' shaddow. what a team... so very progressive. 'hope...' . oh yeah, we've got a lot of 'hope' going on here. The lush fantasy kind, so deadly sweet and full of bull. frank darabont is a gifted man who excels in making pretty pictures that strike at the very heart of american pie values and gives them a welcome support by elevating tokenism to its greatest levels in hollywood yet - that is no small achievement, considering... if you don't believe me check out his latest masterpiece, he just can't stop doing it. hell, why not! it sells tickets.