Tom Hanks (You've Got Mail) stars as Paul Edgecomb, a Depression-era Death Row prison guard in Cold Mountain Louisiana State Penitentiary's E block, which is also known as "the Green Mile" because of the lime-colored paint job. Edgecomb genuinely cares about his prisoners, despite having to supervise their executions via the electric chair (nickname: Ol' Sparky) with his fellow guards, played by David Morse (Crazy in Alabama), Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan) and Doug Hutchison (Batman & Robin), with the latter serving as the film's antagonist, the spoiled nephew of the Governor's wife.

Mile's structure (and running time) resembles that of Titanic, beginning and ending in the present day with an elderly Edgecomb (Dabbs Greer, Picket Fences) and flashing back to 1935 for the majority of the film. Edgecomb tells the story of one particular inmate that changed his life forever. The prisoner, John Coffey (Michael Duncan, Bear from Armageddon), is a giant black man convicted of raping and murdering two white girls. Coffey was found with the two victims in his arms, their blonde hair matted with blood, and, as a result, Edgecomb and crew expect the worst from this prisoner. Instead, they find Coffey to be more of a lamb than a lion, referring to the guards as "Boss" and asking if they can keep a light on at night because he's afraid of the dark. While Coffey never proclaims his innocence, Edgecomb somehow detects it

I know what you're thinking - another one of these prison films where someone has been wrongly convicted, with the entire focus of the picture centering on them (or a second party) proving their innocence in the final reel. Every prison movie is like this (this year alone we've had Instinct, True Crime and Double Jeopardy), which is probably why HBO's OZ, a realistic prison drama with diabolically guilty characters, is such a hit. Plus, Coffey is in the last cell, making it the furthest away from Ol' Sparky, so you know that eventually he'll have to take the long walk. It's just common sense.

But then, something happens. Seventy minutes in, you realize Mile is not your typical prison flick. If you don't know the story, the development in the story at this point of the film is a jaw-dropping shocker. Even after momentarily being taken aback, it still seems painfully obvious where the rest of the film is going, but Mile isn't through surprising yet. The second-to-last-reel is absolutely spellbinding.

Returning to Darabont's crew are Shawshank nominees Thomas Newman (score), Richard Francis-Bruce (editing) and Robert J. Litt (sound), but missing is cinematographer Roger Deakins (replaced by Episode One's David Tattersall). As a result, Mile doesn't look anywhere near as keen as Shawshank's muted blues and grays. Darabont's direction is terrific, creating a leisurely pace yet somehow not letting the story drag. He uses a clip of Top Hat's Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers "Dancing Cheek to Cheek" as emotional bookends to Edgecomb's flashback and peppers the story with adequate humor, courtesy of a prison mouse named Mr. Jingles.

I was starting to lose faith in Tom Hanks as an actor, feeling that his early comedy work easily outdistanced his mediocre dramas. I'll take his performances in A League of Their Own, Big and Punchline over his over-praised Philadelphia ("Ooh, I can cry with fake lesions stuck to my face"), Apollo 13 ("Ooh, I can look worried") and Saving Private Ryan ("Ooh, I can make my hand shake"). His directorial effort, That Thing You Do!, was a mess, and don't even get me started on Mail, where he phoned in his performance from the other side of the moon. Hanks seemed more interested in lending either his talent to develop pet projects, like From the Earth to the Moon and Return With Honor, or his voice to Toy Story's Woody.

But here, Hanks is a genuine pleasure to watch. His Edgecomb is pleasingly pudgy, has a decent Southern drawl and even gets to endure a painful bladder infection. He seems to be a lock for his fifth Academy Award nomination and, since he has a black co-star, his odds of winning seem pretty good. Remember, he won for Forrest Gump (with Mykelti Williamson) and Philadelphia (with Denzel Washington) while his lily-white films (Apollo 13, Big and Ryan) sent him home empty-handed on Oscar night.

And it's not just Hanks' performance that makes Mile a winner - everybody is outstanding, from the usually reliable Morse and James Cromwell (The Bachelor) to the usually annoying Michael Jeter (Jakob the Liar) and Sam Rockwell (Safe Men). Bonnie Hunt (Random Hearts) is, at first, unrecognizable as Edgecomb's wife, beautifully portraying a weathered, middle-aged woman in a rare non-comedic role. But Duncan steals the show as the scarred, hulking kitten with a voice that seems several octaves lower than Barry White. He's not extraordinarily tall in real life, but Darabont skillfully shoots the actor to make him appear about nine feet tall. A fitting height for such a lofty film.

3:00 - for violence (including several grisly electrocutions), adult language and some sex-related material