☆☆
Roman J. Israel, Esq. is the second movie this month with a comma in its title, a fact that is only slightly less interesting than the film itself, which is a disappointment coming from Dan Gilroy, the writer-director of Nightcrawler, and Denzel Washington, a modern screen icon and a movie star if ever there was one.
But it turns out Roman J. Israel, Esq. is a character in search of a movie, a bunch of idiosyncratic tics placed on screen in what appears to be primarily an attempt to nab some Oscar nominations. What Roman J. Israel, Esq. has going for it: an undeniably appealing central performance, some magnificent cinematography, and some nice supporting work by Colin Farrell and Carmen Ejogo. What it's missing is a crucial reason for being, a cinematic personality to match its title character, and a cohesive story.
A mild-mannered attorney in a small Los Angeles two-man firm led by a beloved civil-rights lawyer (who never appears on screen), Roman J. Israel, Esq., spends his days researching cases and writing legal briefs. He can recite the entire California civil code by memory, and he wears cheap suits and clip-on ties from the second-hand store. He carries around thousands of pages of notes for an epic class-action lawsuit against the federal government that he dreams of filing. He makes $500 a week and lives in a tiny apartment in a bad part of town. (For as much as it revels in its setting Roman J. Israel, Esq. doesn't go out of its way to make L.A. look particularly nice; it's the anti-La La Land.)
When his mentor collapses into unconsciousness after an all-but-fatal heart attack, Roman J. Israel winds up working for a slick, high-priced attorney (Farrell), whose philosophy is geared more toward billable hours than upholding civil rights. But Roman J. Israel, Esq., is passionate about civil rights, and believes in the power of the law to do good, which wins the attention of a beautiful, intelligent volunteer lawyer for a liberal activist group.
Somewhere in here a story happens, eventually. There's a ripped-from-the-headlines shooting case involving two black men, and because of that case Roman J. Israel, Esq., finds himself in a morally compromising position, and for once in his life he decides to follow the lead of Farrell and go for the money after a series of highly unlikely scenarios that finds Roman J. Israel, Esq., suddenly rich.
It all plays out like an uncomfortable blend of Being There, Rain Man and a generic John Grisham legal thriller, the kind that throws out a lot of legal jibber-jabber that laymen can't keep up with and that I suspect probably has lawyers in the audience giggling.
Roman J. Israel, Esq., isn't about the character's autistic traits and how he needs to adapt to the world, though there are traces of that. And it isn't about how this simple character gets into complex situations and struggles to make sense of them, though there are traces of that. And it isn't a paranoid thriller, though there are quite uncomfortable traces of that. And it isn't a romance, though there are some even more uncomfortable traces of that. And it's not about civil rights or the role the law plays in upholding inherent rights, though there are tiny traces of that. What it is, in the end, is a something of a mess.
The movie has a hard time laying out its story and making sense of it, and a really awful framing device is more awkward than endearing, though it's meant to be the latter, and we're meant to cheer the way Roman J. Israel, Esq., gets a chance to grab the easy money and then realizes how it's never as easy as all that. But none of it rings true. Fortunately, it's at least always a joy to look at thanks to the cinematography by Robert Elswit, who also shot Paul Thomas Anderson's magnificent ode to Los Angeles, Magnolia, which is a far superior movie about people who live in L.A. and come to realize that life is way more complex than it appears, and that life is really hard for people with strong moral principles.
It's interesting how movies set in Los Angeles often explore issues of justice and social inequality, how they play with the disparity between the way the city looks and the kinds of people who live here. A lot of great movies have been made about Los Angeles and the way it hides the good in bad people and the bad in good people and is a place that is both deeper and more interesting than it appears. A lot of really terrific films have been made about ideas like that. Unfortunately, Roman J. Israel, Esq. isn't one of them.
Viewed Nov. 15, 2017 -- TCL Chinese Theater
1915
But it turns out Roman J. Israel, Esq. is a character in search of a movie, a bunch of idiosyncratic tics placed on screen in what appears to be primarily an attempt to nab some Oscar nominations. What Roman J. Israel, Esq. has going for it: an undeniably appealing central performance, some magnificent cinematography, and some nice supporting work by Colin Farrell and Carmen Ejogo. What it's missing is a crucial reason for being, a cinematic personality to match its title character, and a cohesive story.
A mild-mannered attorney in a small Los Angeles two-man firm led by a beloved civil-rights lawyer (who never appears on screen), Roman J. Israel, Esq., spends his days researching cases and writing legal briefs. He can recite the entire California civil code by memory, and he wears cheap suits and clip-on ties from the second-hand store. He carries around thousands of pages of notes for an epic class-action lawsuit against the federal government that he dreams of filing. He makes $500 a week and lives in a tiny apartment in a bad part of town. (For as much as it revels in its setting Roman J. Israel, Esq. doesn't go out of its way to make L.A. look particularly nice; it's the anti-La La Land.)
When his mentor collapses into unconsciousness after an all-but-fatal heart attack, Roman J. Israel winds up working for a slick, high-priced attorney (Farrell), whose philosophy is geared more toward billable hours than upholding civil rights. But Roman J. Israel, Esq., is passionate about civil rights, and believes in the power of the law to do good, which wins the attention of a beautiful, intelligent volunteer lawyer for a liberal activist group.
Somewhere in here a story happens, eventually. There's a ripped-from-the-headlines shooting case involving two black men, and because of that case Roman J. Israel, Esq., finds himself in a morally compromising position, and for once in his life he decides to follow the lead of Farrell and go for the money after a series of highly unlikely scenarios that finds Roman J. Israel, Esq., suddenly rich.
It all plays out like an uncomfortable blend of Being There, Rain Man and a generic John Grisham legal thriller, the kind that throws out a lot of legal jibber-jabber that laymen can't keep up with and that I suspect probably has lawyers in the audience giggling.
Roman J. Israel, Esq., isn't about the character's autistic traits and how he needs to adapt to the world, though there are traces of that. And it isn't about how this simple character gets into complex situations and struggles to make sense of them, though there are traces of that. And it isn't a paranoid thriller, though there are quite uncomfortable traces of that. And it isn't a romance, though there are some even more uncomfortable traces of that. And it's not about civil rights or the role the law plays in upholding inherent rights, though there are tiny traces of that. What it is, in the end, is a something of a mess.
The movie has a hard time laying out its story and making sense of it, and a really awful framing device is more awkward than endearing, though it's meant to be the latter, and we're meant to cheer the way Roman J. Israel, Esq., gets a chance to grab the easy money and then realizes how it's never as easy as all that. But none of it rings true. Fortunately, it's at least always a joy to look at thanks to the cinematography by Robert Elswit, who also shot Paul Thomas Anderson's magnificent ode to Los Angeles, Magnolia, which is a far superior movie about people who live in L.A. and come to realize that life is way more complex than it appears, and that life is really hard for people with strong moral principles.
It's interesting how movies set in Los Angeles often explore issues of justice and social inequality, how they play with the disparity between the way the city looks and the kinds of people who live here. A lot of great movies have been made about Los Angeles and the way it hides the good in bad people and the bad in good people and is a place that is both deeper and more interesting than it appears. A lot of really terrific films have been made about ideas like that. Unfortunately, Roman J. Israel, Esq. isn't one of them.
Viewed Nov. 15, 2017 -- TCL Chinese Theater
1915
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