Night Falls on Manhattan

Directed by Sidney Lumet, Night Falls on Manhattan follows an ambitious lawyer (Andy Garcia’s Sean Casey) as he’s offered a high-profile case that could make his entire career. Filmmaker Lumet, working from his own screenplay, delivers an erratically-paced drama that fares best in its brisk and periodically electrifying first half, as the movie initially boasts a tremendously stirring narrative that’s been augmented with a whole host of engaging elements and attributes – including several spellbinding courtroom sequences and Ron Leibman’s commanding, scene-stealing turn as a larger-than-life district attorney. It’s only as the picture progresses into an admittedly unpredictable yet comparatively less-than-enthralling midsection that one’s interest begins to flag, as Lumet offers up a sprawling story about corruption that doesn’t quite pack the visceral punch of everything preceding it (ie the film’s propulsive energy essentially disappears beyond a certain point) – which, despite terrific performances by folks like Garcia, Richard Dreyfuss, and Ian Holm, cements Night Falls on Manhattan‘s place as a mostly compelling endeavor that feels like it could (and should) be better.

*** out of ****