Seeing as how most of the movies I was looking forward to this year were either delayed or I was unable to see them in reliably safe conditions, seeing The Trial of the Chicago 7 was a nice change of pace. Aaron Sorkin has always been a stellar screenwriter, and this film absolutely reinforces that sentiment. However, Sorkin the director has yet to find his footing. This sophomore debut after the pretty solid Molly’s Game shows that he is able to take an ambitious script with a massive ensemble cast and turn it into a gripping 2.5 hours of cinema, even if there are some minor speed bumps along the way.
I was unfortunately woefully ignorant of the real life events that this film was based off of. Taking place in the late 60s to early 70s, it follows a number of different advocate groups that band together petitioning to end the war in Vietnam during the National Democratic Conference. There is a lot of star power in this film, one of which is an utterly delightful appearance around the halfway mark that I won’t spoil. However, it goes without saying that not every character received equal screen time for the viewer to know and understand their place in the trial. In fact two of them, who you barely see throughout the film, are pretty much just there to remind you that it’s called the Chicago 7, not the Chicago 5. Regardless, there are a lot of events that this film has to cover, and Sorkin ambitiously does it in a way that almost reminded me of a Christopher Nolan film. He doesn’t give you the entire story straight out, but feeds you bits and pieces forcing you to put things together while keeping up with the dialogue which is already running at a breakneck pace.
The performances here are all great. I would say the only exception would be Sacha Baron Cohen, who has a distractingly bad Boston accent. Other than that, everyone plays their roles very convincingly, especially that of Jeremy Strong’s character. He is a delight throughout the film and adds a bit of much needed levity to the entire trial.
This film is good, but I think it could have been great. There were some scenes near the end that I felt could have been fleshed out more, as it seemed like it was building up to a nail-biting climax. However, it kind of just fizzles out and opts for the more cliché Hollywood ending. Asking for more time on a courtroom drama that’s already 2.5 hours is pushing it, I know. It’s possible this could have been better serviced as a limited series, but I still respect Sorkin for taking on this ambitious project.
At the end of the day, this film is more about its timely message than it is about the individual characters. One of the greatest things about Sorkin’s writing is that he does character studies so well, but because he focuses on the overall story of the trial more than those being put on trial, it left me slightly empty. Yes, the message is heard loud and clear, and it is still a powerful message. I just felt like the emotional impact is usually magnified when Sorkin is able to spend more intimate time with his characters. At the end of the day, I will never turn down seeing something that Sorkin has worked on, although I’m starting to wonder if it’s better for someone else to be sitting behind the director’s chair on future collaborations.
Grade: B/78
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