SCRIPTED BY DAVID MAMET, THE VERDICT GIVES PAUL NEWMAN ONE OF HIS FINEST ROLES AS BURNT-OUT LAWYER FRANK GALVIN, WHO’S OFFERED THE CHANCE OF NEGOTIATING A QUICK OUT-OF-COURT SETTLEMENT FOR A CASE OF MEDICAL MALPRACTICE.
Personal pride and professional integrity swirl hazily back into focus as the lawyer studies a photograph of the tragic patient, and he decides to contest the case against crack lawyer Concannon (James Mason), a legal Lucifer with a cohort of yuppie underlings at his beck and call. It is a story of redemption, yet few films evoked the atmosphere of the times—the lies, the reactionary ruthlessness, the cynical materialism, the moral corruption—more trenchantly than this film. The humanism is precarious and the tone troubled; even Johnny Mandel’s score sounds more religious than romantic. Ensemble acting of the highest quality contributes to what still seems to me one of the best American movies of the 1980s.Group tickets are available directly from the IFI Box Office on (01) 679 3477
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