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He does not need the money, as he’s been hired by the offices of rich lawyer George Pierce ( Colin Farrell), the man whom the now-deceased William had selected to dissolve Roman’s firm. Roman uses that money to bring his wardrobe up to the 21st century, to move into a swanky apartment and to tighten up his coif. Roman suddenly decides to accept money from a shady source, a breach of ethics that comes out of nowhere and is characteristically abnormal.

Why, for example, does Roman do what I think is that aforementioned “major reveal/spoiler”? I’ll tread lightly here. On a dinner date, Maya is so overwhelmed with admiration for Roman that she bursts into tears, and while Ejogo convincingly weeps, I couldn’t help but ask myself “why?” You’ll be asking yourself “why” a lot too, as this lifeless, interminable movie plays as if the filmmakers threw the footage up in the air and edited it in the order it hit the floor. She’s necessary because we never see a single thing to support why we’d care about Roman or his story. The film's romantic interest Maya has the thankless job of echoing how great and inspiring Roman is supposed to be.

This too is played for laughs in the trailer in the film, the scene ends with an angry activist leveling the F-word at a confused Roman, turning this important meeting into chaos. But Roman’s ideas about women are as outdated as his clothing. Since William’s firm was known for its community service, Maya hopes Roman can inspire her group. You would not want this man representing you, nor would you want him, as Maya ( Carmen Ejogo) discovers, to come speak at your activism meeting. It’s clear that Washington and Gilroy want to cast Roman as some kind of grumpy genius-he’s the Dr. Both of these scenes are played for laughs in the film’s trailer, but neither scene is so damn funny in context: that contempt charge gets William’s near-bankrupt firm slapped with a $5,000 fine the district attorney flap indirectly results in a client’s murder. Later, Roman will again go against his firm’s wishes by telling off the district attorney in regards to a plea offer. His client is getting a raw deal, to be sure, but Roman exacerbates the situation by arguing with the judge until he is held in contempt. Despite being told by William’s assistant to simply ask for continuances, Roman engages the case. He casts himself as plaintiff and defendant in this damning confession.Įventually, we’ll return to this brief, but for now, we’re thrown three weeks into the past where Roman makes his first court appearance in decades. In the brief, Roman calls himself a hypocrite who has sold out his own belief system. As letters fill the screen, the score gets louder and more bombastic in a vain attempt to telegraph suspense. The brief is two paragraphs of legalese interspersed with nonsense, and we get to see it typed in its entirety on the screen. The narration accompanies a legal brief Roman is writing. Israel, Esq.” opens, William has suffered a soon-to-be-fatal heart attack and Roman has to cover for him in court.īefore we see Roman in action, however, we’re treated to voiceover by Washington that is meant to set up a flashback structure.

It is also hinted that Roman’s lack of social cue recognition may have been the reason William never sent him to court. It’s hinted that Roman has some form of Asperger’s, though his Rain Man-like recollection of the number of every single statute leans him more heavily into savant territory.

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Roman does all the research and advises on how to approach each case. William is the public face of the firm, arguing in court and meeting with clients. He and his boss, William Jackson, handle cases for the downtrodden and underprivileged. Roman is a lawyer in a two-man criminal defense law firm in Los Angeles. Gilroy’s story makes so little narrative sense that I have no idea what they’re talking about, so I am issuing a spoiler warning from here on as a precautionary measure. There’s some vague notion that a “major reveal/spoiler” has been moved to an earlier spot in the film. The new cut is 13 minutes shorter and certain plot points have been edited in a different order. Israel, Esq.” hitting theaters this week is not the same one that drew critical scorn at the Toronto Film Festival.