Roman J. Israel Esq. (2017)

I rather enjoyed Roman J. Isreal Esq. but I think I figured out what its main problem was, this should never have been a movie it should have been an eight part HBO limited series. Roman J. Israel, as portrayed by Denzel Washington is a really interesting character, and supporting characters like Carmen Ejogo's Maya Alston and Colin Farrell's George Pierce turned out to be intriguing as well, the problem was that we didn't get enough time with them. The movies pacing and structure felt off, you are half way through the film before Roman comes to his faithful decision, he then spends 40 minutes trying to justify it and 20 trying to atone for it. This is not enough time for this arc, especially when there was so much more here that could have been explored. Break it up, flesh it out, expand it over a full season, Washington defiantly could have carried it (it would be interesting to see him return to TV 30 or so years after the end of St. Elsewhere), I think it would have been more enjoyable and would have worked better.

Roman is a throw back lawyer, still stuck in his student activist days of the 1970's,and while its never directly stated, he appears to have aspergers syndrome. After the liberal lion whose law office Roman has been quietly working in back of nearly 40 years unexpectedly dies, Roman is thrown out into a different moral landscape and has to grapple with choices he hadn't been pressed with before. It is really fascinating, and deep, and literary and it should have been explored more. Like Roman in a little back office there is a lot of potential here squandered, and I'd have loved to a take a look at that alternate universe rendering of the story. Baring that however Roman J. Isreal Esq is still worth a look. ***1/2