Roman J. Israel, Esq.

It's a brilliant performance in a film that's an honorable misstep.

There's an interesting drama in there, but it has not been given time to fight its way out of the semi-digested mulch all around.

We don't learn very much about Israel's relationships or motivations from the screenplay, but it's fascinating to watch Washington's display of repressed turmoil.

The results are entertaining and watchable, but always slightly, oddly out of sync with the eponymous turn.

A Washington vehicle in the purest sense, one whose whole reason for being is the fact that he's in it.

Through his sheer learned technique and presence, Washington sells this one.

What a delight to see an acting institution unto himself — crafting a chatty character of almost unspoken complexity who is tearful, fallible, mortal, deeply despondent and absolutely unlike anything Denzel Washington has ever done.

Gilroy and Washington deftly open up this character’s quirks and complexities, and even when the narrative begins to wander Roman is still the focus.

However noble the film's intentions, the material receives a muddied and unclear treatment from its director and star.

Tries to be a morality play, a character study, an indictment of the unjust legal system and occasionally a thriller, a romance and a drama about mental illness.