Roman J Israel, Esq is a strange film, much stranger than features containing Oscar-nominated performances tend to be. Denzel Washington plays Israel, a brilliant, socially awkward, behind-the-scenes civil rights lawyer who is left high and dry when his partner unexpectedly dies. Offered a new job by Colin Farrell’s wealthy criminal lawyer, he is thrust into a set of new circumstances and presented with a series of moral conundrums.

Directed by Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler), the film isn’t quite sure what it’s doing. It begins as a legal drama, but lacks a courtroom climax. It’s set in the present day, but is bogged down by period trappings (Israel listens to 70s soul on an iPod classic, carries a mobile and is guided by a poster of the civil rights activist Angela Davis that hangs in his flea-bitten apartment). The plot flails desperately at every turn, and lags unevenly, before hurtling towards its rushed twist ending. Yet the film’s messiness – and old-fashioned Hollywood flashiness – remains compelling.

The zing in Washington’s Oscar-nominated performance is all in the physicality: heavy, slumping shuffle; ill-fitting three-piece suit (in gauche plum, no less); eyes shifting downwards; gaze obscured by plastic, 70s-style aviator glasses. The charisma, the smile, the sharp-eyed, straight-backed leading man sense of purpose – everything audiences have come to expect from the actor’s screen presence – is deliberately dulled and de-glammed. We don’t learn very much about Israel’s relationships or motivations from the screenplay, but it’s fascinating to watch Washington’s display of repressed turmoil.