Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017)

Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017): written and directed by Dan Gilroy; starring Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel), Colin Farrell (George Pierce), and Carmen Ejogo (Maya): Denzel Washington certainly deserved his Best Actor Oscar nomination for this film. The film itself is inconsistent and lacking a solid ending. It just sorta ends. It's also got the rhythms of a movie based on a true story, which it isn't. Even the underlying legal topic -- a constitutional challenge based on the inability of poor people to get adequate counsel in criminal cases -- seems like a true-to-life topic.

Washington plays the title character, a mildly autistic lawyer who's been doing backstage work for a practicing defense attorney for decades until the lawyer suffers a stroke that leaves him in a persistent vegetative state. The practice is shuttered by legal hotshot Colin Farrell as part of the comatose lawyer's instructions -- the firm had been running in the red for years.

Farrell offers Israel a job. Israel first declines and then, not finding other work, accepts. Israel has a keen legal mind and a near-photographic mind. He's been working for years on that constitutional challenge, but he's also outraged by injustice throughout the system. Alas, his outrage leads to problems for himself and the firm. 

Then, as you may or may not guess, he's basically tempted by the Devil (OK, not literally) to stop living his paycheck-to-paycheck life and start earning money and having fun. And buying new suits. And going on a date with Carmen Ejogo's idealistic community organizer.

The plot is somewhat boilerplate right up to the last five minutes, when the movie just sort of shrugs and ends. Farrell's character is a bit more nuanced than this sort of money-chaser usually is. Ejogo is good in a somewhat thankless Angel of the Conscience role. 

But it's Washington who commands the movie, not in least because he's in pretty much every scene. The autism seems a bit gimmicky, a bit too much of the moment, but Washington plays it well. He gets a couple of nice speeches. And a chance to play someone with archaic suits and an archaic haircut. He really elevates the film from Lightly Recommended to Recommended all on his own.