With a lesser actor than Paul Newman, The Verdict would be a solid court room drama rather than a great one.  What makes it great is that the movie is more a character study of Newman’s character Frank Galvin than a thriller.  This movie was made by some of the best on the business.  Aside from Newman, it was directed by Sidney Lumet and written by David Mamet.  Not a bad list of A-teamers.

Newman plays Frank Galvin, an alcoholic, ambulance chasing lawyer in Boston who hasn’t had a winner in a while.  His friend and colleague Mickey played by Jack Warden gets him an easy malpractice case against a Catholic hospital where a young woman was turned in to a vegetable because of a goof by the doctors.  If he settles, he’ll make enough to continue his low budget and heavy drinking lifestyle for possibly the remainder of his lonely days.  When he goes to see the woman in the hospital, seeing her lying in a coma strikes a nerve.  He decides to go against the wishes of his client and his better judgment and tries the case to expose the doctors as liars and incompetent.  This puts Galvin up against the archdiocese and their group of high powered attorneys headed by Ed Concannon played to pompous perfection by James Mason.  The rest of the film plays out like most court room dramas do, but instead of focusing on the case this film focuses on a broken down lawyer trying to redeem himself. 

The case ends predictably, but Galvin does not ride off in to the sunset like you would expect.  While he made a good bundle on the case and beat the odds to do what no one thought he could, he’s still alone and still an alcoholic.  Newman owns this movie giving one of his best performances.  It was the first movie that showed him as an older and beaten man and he pulls it off flawlessly.  It is a bit slow moving at times and never really has you on the edge of your seat, but watching the development of this man well after his ways have been developed is intense and at times very moving.