Roman J. Israel, Esq. is a 2017 American legal drama film written and directed by Dan Gilroy. The film stars Denzel Washington, Colin Farrell, and Carmen Ejogo. The plot centers around the life of an idealistic defense lawyer (Washington) who finds himself in a tumultuous series of events that lead to a personal crisis and the necessity for extreme action.
Roman J. Israel, Esq premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2017, and began a limited release in the United States by Columbia Pictures on November 17, 2017. The film went wide on November 22, 2017, and grossed $12 million against its $22 million budget. The film received mixed reviews from critics but Washington was widely praised for his performance, for which he received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.
Video Roman J. Israel, Esq.
Plot
Roman J. Israel (Denzel Washington) is a lawyer and activist working for a small law firm in Los Angeles. In his two-partner office, Israel is responsible for preparing memos and briefs while William Jackson, the firm's owner and a well-respected professor, focuses on the courtroom appearances that Israel struggles with. Israel has spent years developing a brief that he believes will change the justice system, in the meantime sacrificing a family and a normal life to fight for justice. While Israel is short on interpersonal skills, he is gifted with a phenomenal memory as well as strong personal convictions on the meaning of justice.
Jackson suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma, forcing Israel to make several courtroom appearances in his stead which go poorly. Jackson's niece reveals to Israel that the firm is broke and that Jackson's succession plan leaves George Pierce (Colin Farrell) in charge. Pierce plans to shut the firm down but offers Israel a job at his own much larger firm. Israel rejects this offer out of hand believing that Pierce is simply a greedy, self-obsessed lawyer. While looking for a new job, Israel meets Maya (Carmen Ejogo) during a job interview at a local activist network. The job interview does not go well, but Maya offers him the opportunity to speak at an upcoming meeting she is organizing.
After failing to find employment elsewhere, Israel reluctantly takes a job with Pierce. Israel is a poor fit at the big firm, clashing with the number two partner Jesse Salinas after Israel mockingly laughs at a disparaging joke Salinas makes about battered women. After attempting to interest Pierce in the legal brief he has been preparing to attempt changing the legal system itself, Israel is disappointed when he is instead assigned by Pierce to several clients including Ellerbee, a young man arrested for murder. Ellerbee maintains he did not do it but is willing to testify against the shooter, wanted fugitive Carter Johnson. Israel goes behind Salinas' back to attempt to negotiate a plea deal for Ellerbee with the district attorney but insults her by insinuating her incompetence. No bargain is struck and Ellerbee is murdered before his case goes to trial.
Israel's mishandling of Ellerbee's case leads to trouble for the firm and causes Pierce to berate him for his insubordination. That evening Israel is mugged and beaten by a homeless man. He becomes downcast and starts adopting a new, cynical attitude. Israel contacts relatives of the murdered store clerk for a $100,000 reward for Johnson's location. Spending the money lavishly, Israel indulges in luxuries he had previously eschewed but still finds himself feeling numb. Jackson dies after his extended coma, but Israel is unmoved and refuses to speak at his memorial service, believing that his mentor was truly flawed in thinking the world could be a just place.
Pierce, inspired after hearing positive testimonials from Israel's other clients about his personal touch and honest approach, resolves to reform his firm including a new focus on pro-bono cases. While he is now celebrated at work, Israel's new materialistic outlook prevents him from enjoying this new direction. Maya later calls Israel to ask him out on a date, despite his failed speech. On the date, Maya sincerely shares some of her struggles with idealism and reality only for Israel to crudely dismiss them as irrelevant and attempt to flaunt his wealth in front of her. Pierce offers to work with Israel on the legal brief for plea reform he has been preparing, but Israel is unenthusiastic.
Pierce calls Israel to meet a new client with him who is in custody only for Israel to learn that the client is Johnson himself. After Pierce departs, Johnson accuses Israel of turning him in for the reward, divulging privileged communications for personal gain. Having accepted that he will spend the rest of his life in prison, Johnson's only goal is to torment Israel and see that he also ends up behind bars. Confronted by his crime, Israel suffers a breakdown and renounces his greedy, self-centered worldview. After attempting to flee town, Israel reverses course after realizing that he cannot escape his own hypocrisy.
Israel reconciles with Maya and Pierce and tries to motivate them to pursue their inner sense of justice. He reveals that he intends to turn himself in to the police for his crime. While walking to the police precinct to surrender himself, Israel is shot and killed by one of Johnson's henchmen. In the aftermath of Israel's death, Maya is seen to be renewed in her activism efforts, while Pierce files Israel's massive brief in Federal Court intending to reform plea bargaining after enlisting the help of his firm's employees for the benefit of the larger community.
Maps Roman J. Israel, Esq.
Cast
- Denzel Washington as Roman J. Israel, Esq.
- Colin Farrell as George Pierce
- Carmen Ejogo as Maya Alston
- Amari Cheatom as Carter Johnson
- DeRon Horton as Derrell Ellerbee
- Amanda Warren as Lynn Jackson
- Nazneen Contractor as Melina Nassour
- Shelley Hennig as Olivia Reed
- Joseph David-Jones as Marcus Jones
- Andrew T. Lee as James Lee
Production
On August 25, 2016, it was revealed that Dan Gilroy's next directorial project was Inner City, a legal drama in the vein of The Verdict. Gilroy was then courting Denzel Washington to star. It was reported on September 21, 2016 that Sony Pictures was closing a deal to distribute the film, with principal photography scheduled to begin in March 2017. Gilroy's collaborators on Nightcrawler, cinematographer Robert Elswit and editor John Gilroy, worked with him again on the project. On January 31, 2017, it was reported that Colin Farrell was in talks to join the cast. As of February 28, 2017, Ashton Sanders was in talks to join as well, though he was unable to because of scheduling conflicts. In April 2017, Nazneen Contractor and Joseph David-Jones joined the cast. As of April 21, 2017, Inner City had begun filming in Los Angeles. In June 2017, Carmen Ejogo joined the cast as a civil rights worker. On June 22, 2017, the film was renamed Roman J. Israel, Esq.
Release
The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2017, before its commercial release on November 17, 2017, initially limited, by Columbia Pictures. Following its festival premiere, the film was re-edited to tighten its pacing, with a dozen minutes (including one whole subplot) being shaved off the final runtime, and a key scene regarding Colin Farrell's character being shifted from the third act to earlier in the film.
Box office
The film took in $61,999 from four theaters in its limited opening weekend, for a per-venue average of $15,500. It then expanded to 1,648 theaters the following Wednesday, alongside the openings of Coco and The Man Who Invented Christmas, and was projected to gross around $4 million over its five-day weekend. It ended up debuting to $4.5 million, finishing 9th at the box office.
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 51% based on 148 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Intriguing yet heavy-handed, Roman J. Israel, Esq. makes the most of -- but never quite lives up to -- Denzel Washington's magnetic performance in the title role." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score 58 out of 100, based 41 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.
Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, praising Washington and writing, "In no way is his performance a stunt. Washington digs so deep under the skin of this complex character that we almost breathe with him. It's a great, award-caliber performance in a movie that can barely contain it." Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 out of 4 stars. He also highlighted Washington, but criticized the narrative, saying, "Roman J. Israel, Esq. has pockets of intrigue, and writer-director Gilroy and Washington have teamed up to create a promising dramatic character. We just never get full delivery on that promise."
In his review for Empire, Simon Braund summarized the political motives in the film viewed as a legal thriller stating, "It (Roman's idealism) illustrates succinctly how at odds with the modern world Roman Israel is. A brilliant legal mind, trapped in the body of a twitchy social misfit, he has all the hallmarks of a true genius-savant -- the interpersonal skills of a yeast cell, dress sense of an Open University lecturer circa 1973 and an unshakeable conviction that justice for the poor and dispossessed is a cause worth fighting for. To this deeply unfashionable end, he's spent decades toiling in the shadows at a tiny law firm, making trouble for The Man while compiling a vast, unwieldy brief he hopes will, one day, set the American legal system on its ear".
Accolades
References
External links
- Roman J. Israel, Esq. on IMDb
- Roman J. Israel, Esq. at AllMovie
Source of article : Wikipedia
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