The Verdict
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by David Mamet from a novel by Barry Reed
1982/US
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube rental
Judge Hoyle: This case should never have come to trial. But you know better. You’re mister independent. You want to be independent? Be independent now. I have no sympathy for you.
This is a good movie, I guess. But I found it infuriating.
The setting is contemporary Boston. There is a skeleton in lawyer Frank Gavlin’s closet (Paul Newman) that almost got him disbarred and helped make him a raging alcoholic. Somehow he is hired to represent a young woman who is in a vegetative state after a botched Cesarian section in a Catholic hospital. Her sister and her husband are naive working class people with an opportunity to move to Arizona.
Frank drinks exactly as much after he gets the case than he did before. He spends a lot of time in a bar where he meets Laura Fischer (Charlotte Rampling), a woman who isn’t answering many questions. But she is beautiful and also drinks like a fish so they hook up.
Frank sees this case as his personal redemption. It is so strong that the Archdiocese makes a generous settlement offer. But it’s not enough in Frank’s eyes and the case goes to trial. Frank is alone against an extremely high-powered law firm which is representing the Church and its insurance company. I won’t go further into the plot which has a couple of major twists. With Jack Warden as Frank’s friend and mentor, James Mason as a partner in the defense law firm and Milo O’Shea as a biased judge.
We are intended to admire Frank I think. But he does several things that are so unethical it took my breath away. Not to mention a Federal crime he commits. Of course the law firm is not made up of saints either. This conduct is not condemned in any way. I suppose we are to believe that the end justifies the means.
The acting is uniformly superb and I have no other complaints about the film. It was nominated for Oscars in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor (Mason) and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was Mason’s last performance in a major American film.
Spoilers
