Wow! Such a good movie.

What makes it different from others?

Good start, but then it gets ruined

A lot of fun.

After giving poor reviews for some of the recent hollywood movies (Annihilation, Black Panther), this is a movie with real characters who change over time, and an interesting story with excellent plot twists.And kudos to the director. The two most pivotal scenes in this movie have no dialog, no words at all. It's all done with eyes and body language. Remarkable.

Courtroom dramas outside of murder mysteries are a mixed bag, and some are incredibly boring. That is far from the case in this case, a medical malpractice suit where a woman goes into the hospital to have a baby and ends up in a lingering coma. Ambulance chaser attorney Paul Newman is on the verge of an alcoholic breakdown and is haunting funerals hoping to get a client. His actions are a disgrace, an embarrassment to watch, and when he takes on the case of the comatose woman from her sister, he seems to have crossed the line into callous immorality. But a sudden visit to the hospital opens his eyes, and after visiting the local cardinal whose diocese runs the hospital, he becomes determined to take the case to court rather than just accept a pricey settlement.After his showy performance in "Absence of Malice", Newman tops it, playing a greatly flawed man whose ethics have unexpectedly disappeared. But there's more to him than meets the bar exam and the bar tabs, and it comes down to a beautiful stranger (Charlotte Rampling) he meets to bring out those vulnerabilities that he's kept hidden. Jack Warden as Newman's veteran attorney mentor, James Mason as the head of the defense team and Milo O'Shea as the tough talking judge round out the cast of famous names, with Wesley Addy as a specialist on the case and Joe Seneca as an important witness give powerful performances as well. Seneca, known to"Golden Girls" as the man suffering from Alzheimer's whom Estelle Getty's character briefly befriended, is particularly memorable in his gentle characterization.Now a 35 year old modern classic, this is still timely because of legal ethics, medical malpractice issues still prevalent today, and is the type of film that really makes you think. I think had it not been for "Ghandi" the year that this came out, this may have been a front runner for Newman to win his first Oscar. I only find some of the Charlotte Rampling scenes to be out of place, even with the twist I saw coming long before it did. It's both a reunion for Warden and director Sidney Lumet from 1957's "Twelve Angry Men" and for Warden and Mason from "Heaven Can Wait". You'd have to be a pretty savvy New Yorker to recognize some of the locations for this Boston set film, but like the Charlotte Rampling issues, those factors are minor.

Well, Paul Newman is good, but this film is not among his best. His character is annoying at best, for a variety of reasons, the least of which is he's a lawyer. That being said, let's get to the rest of the film. It is a strong-plotted film, with the time- earned theme of the wronged-little-guys against the big-money-big-guys in a courtroom. Who wins? Watch the movie. Medical malpractice always makes for engaging material. Not much else to say about this film. Newman is solid, but not great. Jack Warden is okay, because that's all he really can be. James Mason is good, and the court scenes are among the best in the film, especially when Mason cross- examines an Irish-accented former Boston nurse. There is a gratuitous love interest and an eventual plot twist that is totally predictable. Watch it, but if you want better Newman, watch Seinfeld or Absence of Malice.

I must say that "The Verdict" is a wonderful film an excellent courtroom drama a case that is a challenge, but settles in the end with courage and determination. And the performance from Paul Newman is top notch maybe one of his best. All legal dramas are always interesting with the usual twist and turns of a case and the drama on the courtroom witness stand is always revealing and compelling and this 1982 film has all of those moments to occur.Set in Boston Paul Newman is Frankie Galvin an ambulance chasing lawyer who's on the downside of his work and his life. Frankie has lost three or four cases in a row, and he's divorced and he's became an alcoholic as his battle with the bottle is now a daily obsession in the form of many shots and glasses of whiskey. And much of Frankie's time in the free is conducted with him playing pinball at the local bar. Really a sad life for a lawyer it's like a midlife crisis. Only all of a sudden dumped in Frankie's lap is a dream case a medical malpractice case that seems impossible to win, yet Frankie is determined to fight the hospital and doctor's who negligence put a young woman in a coma for the rest of her life. As Frankie owes answers and money and justice to the family of this young lady. And you guessed it the determined Frankie wants to get his game back as he refuses settlement and instead takes the case to court.And in somewhat of a subplot Frankie has a fling somewhat of a one night stand with a divorced lady(played clever and elegantly by Charlotte Rampling)as with life the case has ups and downs still the film becomes a powerful drama as the entire legal system seems like it's put on trial in the courtroom. "The Verdict" is a film that searches for answers and it finds the truth leading to justice and most of all it's a moral and life and job awakening of a man named Frankie Galvin.