‘A Bright Lawyer’ (2025) Netflix Movie Review - A Mixed Case Worth Arguing Over

I watched A Bright Lawyer expecting light comedy with a moral undercurrent; what I got was something like that, but also parts that scraped against good sense and slackened at moments where it needed sharpness. Still, this one is worth putting on if you like your laughs uneasy, your dilemmas messy, and your protagonists not perfect but trying.

Roberto (played with energetic awkwardness) is a man cornered by life’s messy logistics: law firm cuts, high alimony, custody threats. He devises a plan so out there it almost feels insane; he’ll pretend to be a woman to hang on to his job so he can afford to fight to stay in his child’s life. That premise has a lot of comedic potential, and many scenes land because of the ridiculousness, others because of the sincerity underneath the ridiculous.

On the plus side: the cast does some heavy lifting. Roberto is likable, flawed, panicked, and touching. When he’s in over his head, you believe it. His interactions with his ex and his child are the strongest moments. The film doesn’t shy away from showing how ugly alimony battles and custody fights can feel, how humiliating desperation can be, even in a comedy. The comedic moments when he has to maintain the disguise, when the firm’s expectations collide with his personal hangups, work well. They provoke real laughs.

Also, something is refreshing about a comedy that doesn’t pretend everything is solved by one big speech; A Bright Lawyer acknowledges that life keeps dragging you back to problems even after you think you’re done.

Visually and structurally, it’s tight enough. The pacing for much of the film keeps rolling; the stakes are clear; the tone is mostly consistent. It doesn’t try to be high art, and it knows that, and that gives it strength.

Now, to the faults, because there are enough. Sometimes the disguise plot feels too familiar. There have been a lot of gender-swap / identity comedies, and A Bright Lawyer doesn’t always find fresh ground. Some jokes depend on tropes that feel safe and predictable rather than clever. A few scenes drag: when Roberto is juggling too many secrets, the writing doesn’t always pull tension out of what could be dramatic moments; instead, they feel like pauses, waiting for the next joke rather than building toward something.

Also, there are support characters who exist almost only to produce comic relief, without much depth. Roberto’s child, for example, is sometimes more an object of motive than a fully drawn human. The same goes for some of Roberto’s colleagues: their eccentricities are funny, but often exaggerated beyond necessity, so the emotional payoff is lessened. When the movie needs us to care, those caricatures work against it.

Another weak link is plausibility. The idea of pretending to be someone else for a job is always going to need suspension of disbelief. A Bright Lawyer leans on coincidences to make that believable: the firm doesn’t notice, people don’t question too much, and Roberto somehow keeps both lives balanced more easily than seems likely. It somewhat undercuts the tension when you keep thinking, “Really? This many close calls and no one catches on?”

Also, there are parts where the film wobbles in tone. It wants to be irreverent, but then suddenly swings into clichés about fatherhood and sacrifice that feel tacked on. It sometimes leans toward safe morals, do good, love your child, etc., in ways that feel predictable rather than earned. Given the premise, more risk could have made it sharper, more memorable.

That said, the film’s heart is in the right place. By the end, it’s hard not to root for Roberto. His problems aren’t solved perfectly, but there is movement. The balance between humor and pathos usually works; you laugh, you cringe a little, you maybe think about the unfairness baked into divorce settlements, the hoops people jump through to maintain dignity and family. And that sort of emotional tug is valuable: the movie isn’t just about jokes, it’s about the cost of trying to do right by the people you love when life pushes you into absurd corners.

In sum: A Bright Lawyer is a fair-to-good comedy that doesn’t always break new ground but has enough warmth and awkward energy to make it worth your time. If you go in expecting something brilliant or earth-shattering, you’ll leave slightly disappointed. But if you want something that makes you laugh and squirm and maybe feel a little hopeful, it delivers.

Final verdict: it’s not exactly landmark comedy, but it’s well-meaning, often funny, mildly frustrating in its predictability, yet ultimately satisfying. If this case were in court, I’d vote to recommend.

Final Score- [6/10]
Reviewed by - Anjali Sharma
Follow @AnjaliS54769166 on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times