The Judge Review

Director: David Dobkin

Cast: Robert Downey, Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D’Onofrio, Dax Shephard.

Running Time: 141 minutes.

Synopsis: A successful lawyer returns to his hometown for his mother’s funeral only to discover that his estranged father, the town’s judge, is suspected of murder. He sets out to discover the truth and along the way reconnects with the family he walked away from years before.

THE JUDGE unites man-of-the-moment Robert Downey Jr. and screen veteran Robert Duvall in a tale of a son and his estranged father who are unexpectedly reunited after twenty years following the death of a loved one. On the eve of said loved one’s funeral, things take a turn for the even worse when Duvall’s character, Joseph Palmer, a seasoned judge of 42 years in small town America, is involved in a hit and run accident leaving its victim dead. Hot shot lawyer/ estranged son, Hank (Downey), immediately sees himself in a moral predicament as he decides whether to skip town and rejoin his life in Chicago, or stay and defend the father in a town he thought he’d left behind forever.

Let’s get this out there right away. THE JUDGE is a clichéd, predictable, overlong, mess of a movie – a family/ legal drama brought to the screen from the director of such high brow classics as WEDDING CRASHERS, THE CHANGE-UP and SHANGHAI KNIGHTS. It is ‘diet’ Grisham-like fodder set in fictional middle town America, featuring a line-up of largely unlikeable characters, all against the backdrop of unforgiving sentimentality – which, I will add, I totally bought into, and was engrossed in, from start to finish.

THE JUDGE throws everything at the viewer, most of which isn’t expected. The trailers and promotional material sell a standard courtroom drama, but the legal issues at the centre of the film are more background noise and secondary to the family values at the heart of the story. Indeed, this is a story of brothers and sons, father and grandfathers; about past lives and opportunities grasped and lost.

Downey is on top form as the charismatic lawyer Hank, though post-IRON MAN, it’s very difficult not to see the egocentric aspects of Stark seeping through into his performance. Duvall however, is perfectly cast as Judge Palmer; this strong, wonderful performance heartfelt and powerful – his best for many years. There is also some truly superb acting in this movie from the likes of Vincent D’Onforio as brother Glen, and an almost unrecognisable Vera Farmiga as childhood sweetheart Samantha. There is some strong output from the likes of a ‘wheeled in’ legal opponent Billy Bob Thornton as the interesting named prosecutor for the state, Dwight Dickham, and also from Jeremy Strong (Dale) and Dax Shephard (C.P. Kennedy), though possibly two characters that we, and indeed our sore backsides could have done without.

That is indeed the main issue – the film suffers from its length. There is so much packed in to the vast 140-minute-plus running time that some will struggle with, though personally I did not have as much of an issue with it as others, as Downey and Duvall are both so watchable, Dobkin’s direction so spot on, and the story interesting enough to hold one’s concentration throughout.

You can’t help but wonder if the film was knowingly going after the Oscar vote, and while I doubt we’ll see many golden statues being thrown in its direction, and despite being layered in gloss, THE JUDGE is certainly one of the strongest, most watchable, engrossing, though-provoking, heartfelt, emotional dramas of the year. Catch it.

[usr=4] THE JUDGE is released in UK cinemas on Friday 17th October, 2014.