The Verdict: A Simpleton’s Movie Review
The Verdict is a movie drama about a lawyer named Frank Galvin, who is played by actor Paul Newman, to represent a woman that became comatose through medical malpractice. Frank Galvin was given this case by his friend Mickey Morrissey who is played by actor Jack Warden, as a favor. Frank was once a veteran, and capable lawyer who is now an alcoholic and down in the dumps. He has lost several cases in the past few years and seems to make a modest living by going after small lawsuit cases just to make ends meet, often by trickery. This medical malpractice case was to be a done deal. The family of the victim, after years of heartache wanted to settle the case with a suitable amount of money to care for the woman and get on with their lives. The negligent hospital, which is owned by the Archdiocese, wanted to settle this case without going to trial by offering $210,000; a third of it would be the fee for Frank Galvin. As Frank goes to the hospital to take pictures of the comatose woman, he becomes emotional and heartened by what he sees. When Frank visits the Bishop who runs the hospital, he was offered the settlement check, but at that moment turns it down because of a change of heart. He decides at that moment to take the case to a grand jury even without notifying the plaintiffs. Frank had an uphill battle even though the case was a good one for him. The defense had an excellent attorney representing them named Ed Concannon who was played by actor James Mason and had a large legal team. In the end Frank has won the case and the jury wanted to offer an even larger settlement amount.
The film was excellent in my opinion and showed how typical lawyers, which can be “ambulance chasers”, can have a change of heart. Normally I tend to stay away from legal movie genres because they are just not interesting to me, especially when there is plenty in television and movies today. But this one made me watch it three times and I...