THE JUDGE
DIRECTOR: David Dobkin
CAST: Robert Downey jr, Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Dax Shepard, Billy Bob Thornton, Leighton Meister, Ken Howard, David Krumholt
CLASSIFICATION: 13L
RUNNING TIME: 140 minutes
RATING: 3 stars (out of 5)
Theresa Smith
‘EVERYONE wants Atticus Finch until there’s a dead hooker in the bathtub,” lawyer Hank Palmer (Robert Downey jr) defends his career choice as a highly paid, very successful defence lawyer.
It is the glib, smart-aleck kind of remark you expect from a Robert Downey jr character and here he plays to type – too clever for his own good, runs rings around people in the courtroom and has trouble relating to regular folk, but we suspect there is a heart underneath all that smarm.
Hank travels home for his mother’s funeral in small town Indiana, where he is happy enough to reconnect with an old girlfriend and his brothers, but struggles to even be civil towards his father, Joseph Palmer (Duvall).
Clearly, Hank wants to recreate the relationship, as you see him wander into his father’s courtroom to watch proceedings from the balcony, and he is hurt by the way the old man keeps him at arms length.
Then, just because it is a film and a family drama needs some trauma, the judge is accused of murder and Hank is determined to defend him.
Farmiga as old girlfriend, Samantha Powell, is the only one who calls Hank out on his bs, helping to humanise him to some extent, while D’Onofrio does not have much to do as the older brother and Thornton for once doesn’t overplay the charming yet dangerous Southern gentleman character.
The film has its moments of mawkish sentimentality and an unnecessary subplot with Samantha’s daughter, but it is saved by Downey jr and particularly Duvall’s portrayals of cocky son and proud but very guarded, extremely firm father.
What starts off as potential courtroom drama slowly morphs into a character study of the old man, and once the focus is on the judge and his relationship with his middle son, it becomes more nuanced and interesting.
Despite the old man’s misgivings, Hank prods and pokes and questions why their relationship is the way it is and Duvall’s slow unpeeling of the rigorous facade is understated versus Downey jr’s brash performance.
The familial dysfunction is familiar and cliched, but the two complement each other nicely. Duvall makes the audience, and Hank, work to get to know him, and by the time the denouement rolls around you are glad Hank kept on prodding. Janusz Kaminsky’s cinematography makes of this a very polished affair, but at its heart it is a very simple, old-fashioned story of a father and son finally getting to know each other.
If you liked This is Where I Leave You or The Soloist you will like this.