Khoi Vinh’s review published on Letterboxd:
This legal drama from Sidney Lumet is maybe not the most trenchant social commentary but it’s a sterling example of dramatic calibration all the same. Lumet approaches the movie primarily through the prism of Paul Newman’s Frank Galvin, a down-on-his-luck, hard drinking ambulance chaser who hasn’t thought about his own higher purpose in many years. All of the procedural and courtroom shenanigans that push him towards caring, while perhaps not legalistically watertight, function as levers progressivelying push him towards his activation as a living soul—culminating in a pretty phenomenal final monologue as the central trial draws to a close. That monologue isn’t showy or explosive; it’s actually quite muted and even pensive, but its opening line is something not to be forgotten: “So much of the the time we’re lost.”
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