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★★½☆☆
12 November 2017
A movie review of ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ. |
“I’m tired of doing the impossible for the ungrateful,” Roman Israel (Denzel Washington)
Disappointing from the director of NIGHTCRAWLER – a film that felt like it was akin to its protagonist, an unusual beast stalking. Moral goodness was absent, just the sociopathic and those in the way. Not disheartening, the film shows the world for what it can be. When investment bankers are destroying other business entities and economies purely for greedy selfish gain, are they not exhibiting the same traits? NIGHTCRAWLER is a bleak mirror held up to the world. Thus Dan Gilroy’s sophomore feature was hugely anticipated. Teaming up with Denzel Washington for a legal project, the mouth salivated at the prospect. Unfortunately, the resultant film is bizarre, but not in a good way. It is muddled, but at least ambitiously so.
The movie I watched at the Toronto Film Festival 2017 might not be the one you see. According to IMDB trivia and Wikipedia, sources I do not necessarily hold as gospel, that was not the final cut. The theatrical release is supposedly 12 minutes shorter and slightly re-ordered. If this new version indeed exists, one has not seen it; though one is sceptical if the altered iteration will be an improvement. The flaws of ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ. appear to run deep. Any cosmetic fix is unlikely to solve the issues.
Disappointing from the director of NIGHTCRAWLER – a film that felt like it was akin to its protagonist, an unusual beast stalking. Moral goodness was absent, just the sociopathic and those in the way. Not disheartening, the film shows the world for what it can be. When investment bankers are destroying other business entities and economies purely for greedy selfish gain, are they not exhibiting the same traits? NIGHTCRAWLER is a bleak mirror held up to the world. Thus Dan Gilroy’s sophomore feature was hugely anticipated. Teaming up with Denzel Washington for a legal project, the mouth salivated at the prospect. Unfortunately, the resultant film is bizarre, but not in a good way. It is muddled, but at least ambitiously so.
The movie I watched at the Toronto Film Festival 2017 might not be the one you see. According to IMDB trivia and Wikipedia, sources I do not necessarily hold as gospel, that was not the final cut. The theatrical release is supposedly 12 minutes shorter and slightly re-ordered. If this new version indeed exists, one has not seen it; though one is sceptical if the altered iteration will be an improvement. The flaws of ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ. appear to run deep. Any cosmetic fix is unlikely to solve the issues.
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One of the most reliable leading men, Denzel Washington is always watchable. Every so often he really pushes himself; recent examples include FENCES and FLIGHT. Here, in the titular part, he disassembles his trademark smoothness, dowdies himself down, and plays a lawyer seemingly on the autism spectrum. A legal savant, he could have been a millionaire in demand from the wealthiest of clients. Eschewing riches he has been representing the downtrodden for a minimal wage, in a firm of three. Surely at first a role model to every right-minded person, we then watch his fall. The problem is not that he loses his way, but that his trajectory does not seem believable.
In NIGHTCRAWLER, Jake Gyllenhaal’s Louis Bloom did not have a character arc (beyond cementing his own nature), so the need to have one here seems to be a creative step back.
Analysing America’s rotten justice system, from the perspective of an unusual protagonist, might have been a doozy. Documentaries, such as Ava DuVernay’s 13TH and Werner Herzog’s INTO THE ABYSS, have begun to examine how the criminal legal system is not working on a fundamental level: An unjust, inhumane factory chewing up people and spitting them out. Money and prejudice are huge factors.
The most interesting player is George Pierce (Colin Farrell), a wealthy legal eagle, with a contradictory sliver of decency rearing its head occasionally. Israel and Pierce are in the ballpark of a fascinating meeting of minds. Roman Israel encountering activist Maya Alston (Carmen Ejogo) likewise kind of goes nowhere, typifying how the film continually tails off frustratingly. Much promise squandered.
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