AFI Dallas Report: A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar... Review

The documentary allows us to look in as six students begin their preparations for the test. Their background, education, and personal circumstances are all over the map, but they share the same passion for the law.

Their goals after passing the bar also vary widely. One is eager to represent tenants against landlords, while another wants to avoid any cases involving individuals, preferring to concentrate on larger issues. One can't wait to litigate, another wants to stay as far as possible from ever going to trial. One gentleman has attempted to pass the bar 41 times, but steadfastly refuses to give up.

We also hear a plethora of sound bites from well-known (in the U.S.) attorneys like Robert Shapiro (O. J. Simpson's lawyer), Nancy Grace (combative television commentator), and Alan Dershowitz (who was played by Ron Silver in Reversal of Fortune), as well as very successful Texas trial lawyers Joe Jamail and Mark Lanier, who provided some welcome local flavor for the Dallas screening.

Clips from movies (personal fave: And Justice for All...) and television commercials in which attorneys advertise their services, usually with a hard sell, spice things up.

The approach is too scatter-shot to allow for more than a bemused reaction to the proceedings. It ranges over a lot of territory that is extremely familiar -- frivolous lawsuits, for one -- without much depth. I suppose the idea is to provide a context for the world that the six law students are so eager to enter, a highly-competitive world with the potential to help society, the possibility of personal wealth, and the likelihood that many people will hate you until they need you.

A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar... is breezy, agreeable, and generally light-hearted. By the end, when the students are sweating, waiting to hear whether they've passed or failed, you might even find yourself rooting for a lawyer or two.

The film will screen again at AFI Dallas on Saturday, March 31.

It had its world premiere at South by Southwest earlier this month, and will be playing at the Chicago International Documentary Film Festival on Sunday, April 1 and Wednesday, April 4. Check the film's official web site (amusingly laid-out lawyer-style) for additional screenings and festival engagements.

A LAWYER WALKS INTO A BAR
Official Web Site
Trailer (Embedded Quicktime)