The score was under construction before and alongside the picture, and Corbet always said he wanted to shoot some of his movie to the music.

To further muddy the picture, Williams had warned me the man would say something like that — Williams had worked hard to create the impression that he never left, he said, that he’d just gone inactive for a while, busy with work.

The picture is part of Roberts’ effort to claim the stories of heroic judges who battled Jim Crow in the civil rights era as allegories for judges facing legitimate critiques today.

It's the picture of domestic bliss.

“Though data shows we’re past peak vibecession, the picture isn’t rosy for everyone,” he said.