Rent The Verdict (1982)
3.8 of 5 from 173 ratings
2h 3min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- When attorney Frank Calvin (Paul Newman) is given an open-and-shut medical malpractice case that no one thinks he can win, he courageously decides to refuse a settlement from the hospital. Instead he takes the case and the entire legal system as well, to court.
- Actors:
- Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden, James Mason, Milo O'Shea, Lindsay Crouse, Edward Binns, Julie Bovasso, Roxanne Hart, James Handy, Wesley Addy, Joe Seneca, Lewis J. Stadlen, Kent Broadhurst, Colin Stinton, Burtt Harris, Scott Rhyne, Susan Benenson, Evelyn Moore, Juanita Fleming
- Directors:
- Sidney Lumet
- Producers:
- David Lawrence Brown, Richard D. Zanuck
- Writers:
- Barry Reed, David Mamet, Jay Presson Allen
- Aka:
- Será justicia
- Studio:
- 20th Century Fox
- Genres:
- Drama
- Collections:
- 100 Years of Paul Newman, All the Twos: 1972-2012, Award Winners, Cinema Paradiso's 2025 Centenary Club: January - March, Cinema Paradiso's 2025 Centenary Club: October - December: Part 2, Getting to Know..., Getting to Know: James Mason, Oscar Nominations Competition 2024, Oscar Nominations Competition 2026, People of the Pictures, Remembering Robert Redford, A Brief History of Film..., The Instant Expert's Guide, The Instant Expert's Guide to Sidney Lumet
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Reviews (3) of The Verdict
Captivating legal drama. - The Verdict review by Steve
One of Paul Newman's better eighties roles. Typical liberal and sincere Lumet expose of US medicine versus the little guy. Coming your way soon...
3 out of 3 members found this review helpful.
The Cost of Doing Right - The Verdict review by griggs
This is a mature courtroom drama that doesn’t beg for your attention—it earns it. Lumet turns the room into a squeeze: bodies arranged like barricades, a question left hanging a beat too long, and you feel the power shift without anyone spelling it out. It’s Lumet revisiting the pressure-cooker trick of 12 Angry Men: there the jury-room walls close in; here, the courtroom does, and the verdict starts to feel like a physical object.
Deborah Ann Kaye is left comatose after an anaesthesia error during childbirth. Frank Galvin (Paul Newman) is a lawyer in freefall, reduced to handing out business cards at funerals, until Mickey (Jack Warden) pushes him a malpractice case that “should” settle. Her family wants money for care and a bit of peace. Galvin wants justice—plus delay, risk, and a trial that turns stability into a moving target.
James Mason’s Concannon makes that choice feel expensive. Newman is superb—frayed, stubborn, intermittently decent. Rampling has less to play, but she and Newman are all eyes. It’s about justice as self-respect: costly, exhausting, and worth fighting for anyway.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Enjoyable, but a formula subsequently done to death - The Verdict review by CP Customer
If you were subjected to countless John Grisham films in the 90's you might not need to see this.
Highly rated, certainly at the time, but I can't see anything particularly unique about it now.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.