The Verdict (1982)

Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring Paul Newman, Jack Warden, James Mason, Charlotte Rampling, Milo O’Shea, Lindsay Crouse, Joe Seneca, Wesley Addy, James Handy, Julie Bovasso, Roxanne Hart, Edward Binns, Lewis J. Stadlen. [R]

Newman gives one of his finest performances in one of his finest roles, that of Frank Galvin, an attorney whose career has bottomed out, leaving him an ambulance-chasing alcoholic crashing funerals to try and drum up a little business. But then he’s handed a medical negligence case that inspires him once more, no matter the setbacks that come his way, including an openly antagonistic judge (O’Shea) and a skillful legal opponent (Mason), branded as “the Prince of F—ing Darkness.” Director Lumet, working off a script from David Mamet (adapted from a novel by Barry Reed), creates a brooding but tense atmosphere, where everything unfolds at a measured pace and the dramatic interest almost never relies on showy displays, sensationalistic surprises, or melodramatic fireworks. Photographed by Johnny Mandel in a gloomy, baroque palette of browns and blues, often dense with clammy shadows. Capable supporting cast includes reliable character actor Warden, and the pic may very well feature Mason’s best work in about two decades, a reminder of his canny, understated gifts. Only a subplot involving Rampling, a woman Newman picks up in a bar, doesn’t ring true. Try to spot Bruce Willis as an extra sitting in the public benches during Newman’s closing argument (Tobin Bell is also sitting only a few feet away).

89/100