The Verdict (Sidney Lumet, 1982)

Paul Newman as a once-prominent Boston lawyer now a washed up alcoholic. His friend, Jack Warden, has sent an easy case his way. A Catholic hospital gave a woman the wrong anesthetic and reduced her to a persistent vegetative state. All he has to do is accept a check from the insurance company but he's so outraged that he turns the money down without consulting his clients and goes to trial against the Catholic Church that has James Mason as their lawyer.

It seemed like a crap shoot. The trial really didn't go well for him, and the ending seemed like sheer chance.

Real trials aren't that dramatic. There was a civil trial I went to. The better lawyer in the case spoke calmly, especially when making objections so the jury wouldn't think he was desperate to keep them from hearing something.

But a lawyer taking a chance by going to court and the trial not being as dull as a real trial aren't valid criticisms of a courtroom drama. Is a less-stressful, low stakes story really what you want? They might have given Paul Newman clearer motivation. He gazes at the woman in the hospital and just seeing her in her state is enough to change his personality.

The doctors' conduct and that of the church's law firm was worse than it first appeared. 

Directed by Sidney Lumet, written by David Mamet.