The Trial Of Chicago 7 Review: 8 Ups & 2 Downs

Downs...

2. The "Sorkinisms" Occasionally Grate

True to form, Aaron Sorkin also wrote the script for his film, and while it mostly lands with a bruising impact, there are certainly moments where it gets a little too cute and, for want of a better word, "Sorkin-y" for its own good.

Anyone who's watched much of his prior output - namely The West Wing or The Social Network - will appreciate how he favours heightened, unrealistically pithy dialogue in favour of more grounded chit-chat, eschewing realism in favour of dialogue that just sounds good.

That's certainly on display here, and though most of the banter ends up on the right side of clever, there are definitely moments where it feels almost like a Sorkin self-parody, with characters in entirely serious scenes acting just a little too smart for their own good.

Sorkin also isn't much for subtlety here - has he ever been? - and that may rub some the wrong way, but at least more often than not he uses his quick-witted pen to draw attention to injustice in a fundamentally entertaining way.