The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Not a compelling case
Denzel Washington is an unconventional lawyer in ‘Roman J. Israel, Esq.,’ but this one’s a mistrial
The most interesting thing about “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” is, unsurprisingly, Roman J. Israel, Esq., Denzel Washington’s brilliant, socially awkward and oddly dressed Los Angeles criminal-defense lawyer.
Unfortunately, that’s not saying much — the film written and directed by Tony Gilroy is largely a mess — and Roman isn’t THAT interesting.
Still, Washington is a very talented actor, and it’s hard to take your eyes off him as Roman, a pudgy man with a medium Afro, big glasses and a rumpled suit that looks right out of the 1970s.
In fact, after the film’s intriguing opening sequence, in which Roman narrates himself composing a legal document — a request for himself to be disbarred not only from the California bar association but from humanity in general on the grounds of hypocrisy — we find him toiling away in an office at an antiquated computer and could be forgiven if we thought this story took place decades earlier. But, no, this is modern day, and Roman is a man who doesn’t easily form new habits or learn new tricks. The smartphone-less attorney works, as he has for 26 years, at a two-person law firm that isn’t raking in big profits and lives, as he has for 35 years, in a modest apartment in a neighborhood that isn’t the greatest.
Roman, who has a savant’s memory that stores seemingly all the city’s and state’s legal codes, is the man behind the scenes, his partner the public face of the operation who goes to court to defend their clients, typically poor minorities. However, when his partner suffers a heart attack, Roman must go to court to handle his cases. Instead of accepting continuances, though, Roman insists on diving right into court proceedings, which doesn’t go well.
Soon, the family of his partner decides there’s no way they can afford to keep the firm open — or even give Roman a severance package, despite all his years of service.
“I’d hoped to reward you for that,” he is told.
“Hope doesn’t get the job done!” he fires back angrily.
Although he initially declines, he accepts a job at the prestigious firm run by one of his partner’s former students, George Pierce (Colin Farrell). Things are bumpy at first, to say, the least, but Roman eventually settles into the new gig, for the most part.
About halfway through the story, however, he makes a decision compromises his morals and breaks ethical rules. (We are told he does this because he is tired of fighting the good fight and getting nowhere, but it nonetheless feels out of character.)
While Roman enjoys the rewards that come from this choice, he becomes increasingly guilty, which is amplified by the admiration piled on him from a woman he’d met who runs an organization that champions civil rights. The more Maya (Carmen Ejogo, “Alien: Covenant”) talks about how he inspires her, the more obviously uncomfortable he becomes.
The story told in “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” never feels focused. Gilroy seems interested, admirably, in saying something about the way a great many defendants are treated in the criminal justice system — Roman has a quote on his wall by civil rights pioneer Bayard Rustin and has been hacking away at a massive class-action suit he believes could be a game-changer — but that isn’t what drives the narrative. It becomes more about a man betraying his beliefs, which would be fine were it done better than it is.
Neither Roman nor George, the second-mostimportant character in the tale, have satisfying arcs. George, for example, seems to alternate between being in law only for the money and having a conscience from scene to scene.
Roman, meanwhile, is something of a hybrid between the characters portrayed by Joe Pesci in “My Cousin Vinny” and Dustin Hoffman in “Rain Man.” And while that can be entertaining in a few scenes, it doesn’t add up to anything as memorable as either of those characters.
Washington, though, gives it his all, which is almost enough to keep “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” afloat. Alas, though, he just doesn’t have the type of material to work with along the lines of the films boasting his best performances — works such as “Malcolm X,” “Training Day” and last year’s “Fences.”
Ultimately, the failure is that of Gilroy, whose 2014 film “Nightcrawler” was a significantly stronger effort. His new film is clumsy right down to the semi-optimistic ending it doesn’t earn.
Well, at least we get Washington in those glasses and wearing that suit.