From solidity to softness
This weekend I rewatched Sidney Lumet’s classic “The Verdict”. It may be the best movie to believably display a true change of heart: Over the course of 2 hours Paul Newman’s character transforms from an uninspired, unsuccessful and alcoholic lawyer into a man of character and a force of nature.
There are many important scenes in the film, but the most transformative occurs towards the beginning when Frank Galvin is shown in the hospital taking photographs of the comatose young woman he is supposed to represent.
One moment he is mechanically going through the motion of his task. Then he hesitates. And finally, as the polaroids of the patient are developing before his eyes, Galvin realizes, maybe for the first time in forever, that he is representing a real, very vulnerable person.
We are all, or at least those of us who are not lucky enough to be saints, guilty of this sometimes: guilty of not seeing the people we interact with for what they are: a real, living person.
When we do everything changes.
