The Verdict

The Verdict is the 1982 classic by one of Hollywood’s best directors – Sidney Lumet.  It was nominated for five Academy awards – Best Actor in a Leading Role (Paul Newman), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (James Mason), Best Director (Sidney Lumet), Best Picture and Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (David Mamet). Sadly it won none primarily because of Gandhi.

An adaptation of the book of the same name by Barry Reed, it traces the story of Frank Galvin (Paul Newman), a beat up lawyer who has lost his previous 4 cases on the trot.  Not too many people are willing to give Frank any chance and that forces him to leave most of his decency at the door while gate crashing even funerals.  The things people do when desperate.

 

But his luck does take a turn for the better (or does it really?) when his friend  Mickey Morrissey (Jack Warden) reminds him about an open and shut case that Frank has to close out.  It is a medical malpractice case of Deborah Ann Kaye (Susan Benenson) who had walked into the hospital to deliver her baby but lands up being paralysed for life due to a wrong anesthetic being administered.

 

Frank can very well take the easy way out since the Archdiocese who runs the hospital is willing to settle the case out of court by offer $210K which is a reasonably large sum of money at that time.  However, something tells Frank that he would be party to grave injustice if he accepts the offer.  Much to the disappointment of Deborah’s sister and brother in law, he refuses the settlement.

 

Be prepared to watch some stunning performances from the two lawyers who fight a case that was thought to be just an easy settlement.  Paul Newman is superb in playing the frustrated lawyer who is on the side of the right but has to keep pegging as he watches most of his witnesses fall by the side.  James Mason is the cocky lawyer for the defence who knows that there is nothing much that his opponent can do.  Or is there?

 

A slow movie for sure so be prepared for that.  It builds up at a snail’s pace like most Sidney Lumet movies.  One can confuse Lumet’s aspect of being particular about the finer details with the pace of the movie.  But it builds slowly but surely into a superb finish at the end of it all.  At the end of the day, it deserved every nomination it got.  Sadly it came up against a brilliant movie that deprived it of any.  8 on 10 to this classic.

 

Watch the trailer on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3aJ3MGghXA