Roman J. Israel, Esq.

It's certainly possible to get your act together without selling your soul. But with the undiagnosed, unacknowledged personality disorder of this character we only get extremes: either you're a revolutionary or you're a capitalist - never mind that Roman J Israel is self-righteous and incompetent in either pose. For Gilroy it's the proper follow-up to his brother's classic of moral reckoning Michael Clayton, only this time populated by ideological robots.

Denzel is fun to watch. This was an ok film, worth a look.

A great performance by Washington elevates an otherwise convoluted, heavy-handed script.

"I'm Roman J. Israel, Esq.!" "And I'm Lou 'Louis' Bloom!" "And we're...MILD AUTISTICS!"

Can we all just take a second and appreciate how stupid of a title Roman J. Israel, Esq. is?

Denzel as always a pleasure to watch.

It has an incredible beginning with interesting characters put on an conflicting situation, money vs values, the choices that led to where we are now and what happen when you lose life choices bets, very good set up, but then the movie betrays their characters making an unbelievable transformation on Roman, his boss and the love interest, so not so good. Overall worth watching when you consider how little original stuff is coming up.

Easily one of Washington's best and most interesting performances. The movie seems to be the oddest mix of movies you've seen ever. It's like Rain Man meets Falling Down meets Jackie Brown meets Thief meets Punch-Drunk Love meets a thousand other movies that don't even exist yet. Yet it's so different from those movies, or Gilroy's previous movie, or pretty much any movie, it's pretty baffling. But in a great, fascinating and intriguing way. One of the most original movies I've ever seen.

I think there's an interesting character study and intriguing look at the justice system here. But also many unconvincing plot devices and a sloppily written outcome.

Washington is fantastic, which is nothing new considering he has never once not been fantastic. Unfortunately, the screenplay is about many things and altogether nothing - nothing but a showcase for Washington's magnetic and eccentric character. For that reason alone, this is a movie well worth watching.

Excellent performance by Denzel, but also a good one from Farrell to a well written character.

Fascinating and weird. Mostly the latter.

Denzel is fantastic and Farrell is pretty great as well. The script feels like 2 or maybe even three separate films mashed together and the plot is a bit messy. Surprised this movie isn't sponsored by Beats by Dre

Reminds me a lot of Being There but muddled and kind of a mess. There's a brilliant movie in here somewhere but it gets weighed down with unnecessary bullshit and a pretty terrible last act. Still worth seeing for Denzel's walk alone.

Much like Nightcrawler this is kind of a one character movie. He's an interesting dude; devoutly idealistic, awkward (savant-like, as a matter of fact), frustrated with his inability to get rewarded for his integrity and slowly getting comfortable with bending against his principles. Washington is terrific but the problem is that the movie is only really interested in him. The storytelling gets muddy and the script takes some odd turns, and Roman deserves more careful storytelling than this.

Hugely underrated and personally meaningful to me

great to see Denzel not play his usual Denzel character. also nice to see a movie that tells a complete story

The story of a research attorney who fights for racial justice despite having REAL social difficulties. Denzel Washington and Colin Farrell are fantstic in it.

Denzel Washington gives another great performance in this film. The script is uneven but it contains several good moments. Overall I would recommend this film.

Allright, its too much hollywoo, and cardboard characters are all over the place... instead Roman himself. His asperger-character goes further than the routine-mindedness and socially inapt stereotype that we have gotten to know too well from series like Homeland or Bridge. His mental struggle also involves his observations, not separating head and side issues, leading to errors in the translation of jurisdiction and the real world and vice versa: and Washington plays this really well.

The writing is weird, but Denzel and Colin Farrell are so good it doesn't really matter. I was entertained just watching this character go about his life. The ending was not what it could have been, unfortunately. And the story hinges on a huge decision that is out of character and never really explained. Still an interesting film, beautifully shot.

Very disappointing

58.00+.50 = 58.50.

engaging first half, schizophrenic second half. the character's moral code changes so drastically and quickly that there's nothing to feel anchored to. all it takes to completely flip him is a single mugging? which didn't feel right to me, and then fear causes him to flip right back, when in reality it probably would've made him double down instead, since fear is what converted him in the first place.

I feel I'm being quite fair about my score because at about the mid-way point I started to uncomfortably feel the mechanics of the theme emerging from the story. It's lazy screenwriting, but the other screenwriting aspects work well, such as how involved it is in Roman's work and his plight. The dialogue is uniformly excellent, so let's just say this is the sort of film that's more fun to watch than to remember.

This isn't a slow-burner, but a consistently faint flame.

Great performance by Denzel, but it's mostly a snoozer.

Overlong character study of a character who refuses to be studied -- Washington is actually very good here, and the evocation of his mental problems (a combination of autism and OCD) are movingly portrayed, but grafting this story (and character) onto conspiracy thriller elements never quite comes off; Farrell as a maybe-ally maybe-antagonist is completely wasted (and spends most of the film looking terribly uncomfortable).

I pretty much only watched this because Denzel Washington was nominated for an Oscar for it. And he was good. Probably one of the better performances I've seen from him, even. The film itself was okay. I liked the exploration of justice and corruption and stuff. But it was very heavy-handed in its treatment of a lot of stuff, and the ending was somewhat embarrassing. Definitely not the film I would've expected from the guy who made Nightcrawler (2014).

Colin Farrell grace notes are why I watch movies.

sadece biçim değil anlatı açısından da demode bir noktada kuruluyor. beceriyle kotarılmış olsaydı bu elbette yerilecek bir durum olmazdı, hele bir de bu tasarımın kendi cümleleriyle denk düşüyor olduğu düşünülürse. fakat diyaloglardan mizansene özensizlikten çok çiğlik hissi barizleşiyor. diğer yandan, dava filmi yapmamak için böyle bir yola başvurmak iyi hoş da, böyle daha da bunaltıcı oluyor çünkü kendisini farklı sunmak için çabalayıp başaramıyor.

We don't see much overt spirituality in Roman J. Israel, Esq. But dig a little deeper, and you'll find plenty. At its core, it's the story of sin, salvation and the status of Roman's soul.

Not very good but I love Denzel and Farrell is an added little treat.

One of Denzel's best, and Farrell well cast in supporting role as a big lawyer with a soul. Well written but not much action so it's not faring well with critics or the public--the only reason I can think of .

Viewed November 22, 2017.