Saint Judy  ★★½

SOMETIMES it’s just important enough that a film exists.

Saint Judy isn’t a great film – maybe not even a good one – but its presentation of actual events and messages of tolerance and compassion are still worth committing to cinematic record.

This 2019 drama is well-intentioned but, as the title suggests, ultimately comes across as heavy-handed and a little overwrought in its approach to the subject matter and lead character.

Michelle Monaghan plays Judy Wood, a successful and popular defence attorney working in New Mexico who decides to take a job in Los Angeles in order to allow her ex-husband more access to their son.

Judy is also up for a new challenge handling immigration law cases but comes up against an employer, played by Alfred Molina, who is indifferent to the plight of their clients and has long given up trying to fight a system that results in overloaded case files and little positive, humanitarian outcomes.

He expects his staff to have the same approach but the committed and principled Wood has other ideas.

Eventually this leads to a parting of the ways and Wood establishing her own practice that is more focused on achieving positive change and outcomes rather than quick, profitable turnover.

In particular she takes on the case of Asefa Ashwari, a young female teacher originally from Afghanistan who is facing deportation and likely retribution from both the Taliban and members of her own family.

In order to save her client Wood must challenge the entire basis of United States’ asylum law as it relates specifically to the protection of women.

It’s an important story and while the acting is first-rate across the board, the script and televisual look of the film tend to reduce the overall impact of such an important story.

These days Monaghan is generally in standard supporting roles, such as Tom Cruise’s wife in the Mission Impossible series, so it’s good to see her performing well in a lead. Leem Lubany is also effective as Ashwari.

An interesting story that would probably be better served through a documentary treatment.