The Verdict

The Verdict (1982) is Sidney Lumet's courtroom drama starring Paul Newman, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Frank Galvin is a Boston lawyer who drank away his career and now chases clients at funeral parlors.

An old friend hands Frank an easy one: a young woman slipped into a coma after anesthesia during childbirth, a respected Catholic hospital is at fault, and the archdiocese is ready to settle quietly. The money is all but his. Then Galvin visits the patient, looks at her, and for the first time in years decides to take it to trial, against a battalion of polished attorneys led by James Mason. It's his last chance to be a man worth respecting. Beside him is the elusive Laura (Charlotte Rampling), who has reasons of her own for staying close.

Lumet built a film about guilt and dignity with almost no score and no flash, trusting faces and silences instead. Newman plays it quiet and devastatingly exact, and Galvin's closing argument to the jury became a textbook scene. The picture earned five Academy Award nominations. Stream The Verdict (1982) online on iFILM.