You can never go wrong when it comes to Sidney Lumet and the suffocation of a courtroom, whether from the jury’s perspective or the lawyer’s. Paul Newman doesn’t just give a performance, he anchors both the movie and the courtroom as Frank Galvin, a washed up lawyer standing on the verge of retirement who has to win a medical malpractice case and revive his career. Just like Atticus Finch and Jefferson Smith, Frank Galvin stands up with idealistic moral stubbornness against a menacing system. Drowsy and unglamorous, The Verdict is simply another devastating piece of Lumet’s finest.
You can never go wrong when it comes to Sidney Lumet and the suffocation of a courtroom, whether from the jury’s perspective or the lawyer’s. Paul Newman doesn’t just give a performance, he anchors both the movie and the courtroom as Frank Galvin, a washed up lawyer standing on the verge of retirement who has to win a medical malpractice case and revive his career. Just like Atticus Finch and Jefferson Smith, Frank Galvin stands up with idealistic moral stubbornness against a menacing system. Drowsy and unglamorous, The Verdict is simply another devastating piece of Lumet’s finest.
