This is a chilling film, but at least the good guy wins.
Boston, 1980, a medical malpractice case finally makes it to trial. A comatose woman's estate is suing the Catholic Church that applied the incorrect anesthetic, leaving her in a vegetative state with a stillborn baby and no answers.. Down-on-his-luck, alcoholic attorney Frank Galvin (Paul Newman) is assigned the case and though he initially wants to settle, he turns down the 'generous' offer and opts to take the case to trial. Except his star witness 'disappears'. Whether that doctor is murdered or forced to take a Caribbean vacation is anyone's guess. So, his case slowly falls apart, until his mentor, Mick (Jack Warden) uncovers the admitting nurse so she comes to testify and provides the smoking gun though the overly biased judge (Milo O'Shea) declares it inadmissible. The doctor didn't read Debra's chart and gave her the wrong drug, causing her to choke on her own vomit, causing her to become a vegetable for life. Debra ate just one hour before arriving at the hospital, not nine as the chart was tampered with to say and then Nurse Costello (Lindsay Crouse) was threatened that if she didn't tamper with the note, the doctors would have her fired. So yeah, there is a bunch of shady stuff going on behind the scenes.
Though the film is slow at the start, it packs an emotional punch and the acting is great. Newman delivers another good performance and at least the doctors are found negligent by the jury as they clearly made some devastating and unforgivable mistakes and should be punished. Grade: A-
Side Notes:
-Beware of Charlotte Rampling's Laura Fisher, she's a mole and while I'm against violence, she deserves to be slapped for her going against her fellow woman.
-This is the second film in which James Mason (the opposing council Concannon) and Rampling star. The first was the great Georgy Girl. Mason received supporting nominations for both, Rampling wasn't nominated for either.
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