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Director David Dobkin gave us “ Wedding Crashers ” nearly a decade ago, and we who hooted heartily at the disreputable acts abetted by the rite of holy matrimony will be forever grateful. We might even pardon any lingering counts against his twin crimes against comedy, “ Fred Claus ” and “ The Change-Up .”

Now here comes “The Judge,” an unabashedly adult drama and a steadfastly old-fashioned one. Robert Downey Jr. is jaded big-city defense attorney Hank Palmer, a specialist in getting unsavory white-collar clients off the hook. As he puts it, “Innocent people can’t afford me.” He is pitted against Robert Duvall as Hank’s estranged dad, Joseph, an upstanding small-town magistrate who suddenly finds himself facing a possible murder rap and relunctantly ends up relying on his hotshot son as his attorney.

You can fairly smell the passion behind this project wafting off the screen. Dobkin, whose father was a lawyer, spent a number of years in pursuit of this opportunity to prove himself as adept at serious subjects as silly ones. Studio types would look at the script and say, “But it’s not funny.” His 1998 breakout film, " Clay Pigeons ," was a dark and nasty crime comedy, as black and violent as they come. But it was still a comedy.

Dobkin’s persistence has paid off in certain ways, mainly because it provides both its leads with an arena in which to occasionally show off their strengths. Downey gets to engage in his trademark hyper-verbal glibness but with a black sheep’s injured sadness in his eyes. Duvall is the embodiment of grizzled authority but undercut by the grimace-inducing infirmities of old age.

Yet, there also are some less welcome elements and a certain dragginess to contend with as Dobkin overloads his plot with too many bits of business on the way to a John Grisham-lite finale. Actually, make that bits of Bit-O-Honey candy, one of the many repeated visual allusions to a past that tore these two men apart. As is often the case when an artist finally is allowed to achieve his dream, the director adds unnecessary clutter – there is much ado about hydrangeas as well as an old Metallica T-shirt -- as if he fears he will never get a chance to do a drama again.

Before "The Judge"’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, Dobkin told the audience that he always wanted to do the kind of movie that doesn’t get made anymore. In other words, a human story. And themes found in the specific examples he cited as his inspirations -- “Kramer vs Kramer,” “ Terms of Endearment ” and “ The Verdict ” – are duly reflected in "The Judge."

Downey copes with his disintegrating marriage while attempting to get closer to his dumpling-cheeked daughter as a potential custody battle looms, just as in “ Kramer vs. Kramer .” After his legal shark returns to the small Midwest pond of his youth for his mother’s funeral, he and a perpetually disapproving Duvall bob and weave around each other like a pair of emotionally battered heavyweights—not unlike Debra Winger and Shirley MacLaine in “Terms of Endearment.” And there are plenty of “Verdict”-style legal entanglements as Hank is forced to represent his father while shaking out the potentially unpleasant truth behind a car accident that is considered a possible vehicular homicide.

Meanwhile, a chorus line of family skeletons shake and rattle at regular intervals, some involving middle-child Hank’s brothers. And if anything is emblematic of the strengths and weaknesses of The Judge, it is these two siblings. As eldest son, Glen, Vincent D’Onofrio carries the burden of regret and responsibility on his beefy shoulders as a former baseball prodigy whose sports career hopes were dashed by an injury. As an unexpected MVP, D’Onofrio solemnly provides the perfect surefooted counterweight between the clash of the titans escalating between Downey and Duvall.

Then there is slow-witted youngest son Dale, played by Jeremy Strong . His innocent questions often provide obtuse humor even if his near-childlike state goes unexplained. But too often Dale ends up being more of a device than a fully fleshed-out character as he shows new and old home movies shot on an vintage Super 8MM camera as a way of filling in the back story that haunts the Palmer clan.

Vera Farmiga , whose local diner owner was cruelly dumped by Hank when they were in high school, seems almost part of a different movie. One by Frank Capra . She primarily exists to provide a sympathetic ear for Downey and some undercooked romantic relief. In fact, a whole parade of colorful performers passes by, including Billy Bob Thornton as a slim and steely silver fox of a prosecutor who battles Hank; Ken Howard as the no-nonsense walrus-like judge presiding over Papa Palmer’s case; and Dax Shepard as an unseasoned rube litigator.

Ultimately, it is the core father-son relationship that is put on trial, and you have to wait until the end before Dobkin unclenches his need to control and just allows Downey and Duvall to fearlessly go at it together at full force.

Still, for almost every choice that rankles – using a raging tornado as a metaphor for the storm inside the Palmer homestead is so obvious, it hurts – there usually is something else that offers compensation. Probably my favorite scene, one that shows Dobkin still has it funny-wise: When Hank, looking to cherry-pick less than salt-of-the-earth types as potential jury members, decides to ask the candidates to reveal the bumper-sticker sayings on their cars. A woman with the word “Tolerance” spelled out with religious symbols gets a thumbs down. The guy whose saying is, “Wife and Dog Missing. Reward for Dog”? He gets a thumbs up. Way up.

Susan Wloszczyna

Susan Wloszczyna spent much of her nearly thirty years at USA TODAY as a senior entertainment reporter. Now unchained from the grind of daily journalism, she is ready to view the world of movies with fresh eyes.

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Film credits.

The Judge (2014)

Rated R for language including some sexual references

141 minutes

Robert Downey Jr. as Henry "Hank" Palmer

Robert Duvall as Judge Joseph "Joe" Palmer

Vera Farmiga as Samantha

Vincent D'Onofrio as Glen Palmer

Jeremy Strong as Dale Palmer

Billy Bob Thornton as Dwight Dickham

David Krumholtz as Mike Kattan

Emma Tremblay as Lauren Palmer

Dax Shepard as C.P. Kennedy

Ken Howard as Judge Warren

Leighton Meester as Carla

Balthazar Getty as Deputy Hanson

Grace Zabriskie as Mrs. Blackwell

David Dobkin
Bill Dubuque
Nick Schenk

Original Music Composer

Thomas Newman

Cinematography

Janusz Kaminski

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Common sense media reviewers.

Mature legal drama is superbly acted but a bit predictable.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Forgiveness and redemption arrive when you least e

Of the three Palmer brothers, Dale is the sweetest

The story centers on a murder trial; a man is foun

A guy makes out with a much younger girl at a bar,

Frequent swearing, including "f--k," &qu

Some labels/products seen or mentioned, including

A fair bit of drinking. Adult brothers get buzzed

Positive Messages

Forgiveness and redemption arrive when you least expect them -- you just have to be open to them.

Positive Role Models

Of the three Palmer brothers, Dale is the sweetest and the one who truly acts without agenda. Hank is angry at his father but finds a way to tap into a well of empathy he didn't know existed.

Violence & Scariness

The story centers on a murder trial; a man is found dead by the side of the road, presumably hit by a car. A man backs an SUV into a garage, denting it. Lots of screaming fights, including a really mean one between a couple about to divorce. A fist fight nearly erupts at a bar after a group of men makes fun of a mentally disabled man. A criminal says something venomous to an officer of the court.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A guy makes out with a much younger girl at a bar, kissing her and groping her backside (they might be related). In another scene, old lovers make out and kiss passionately. A woman talks about pleasuring herself. Additional sexual references.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent swearing, including "f--k," "hell," "piss," "ass," "a--hole," "s--t," "d--k," "bullsh-t," and more.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Some labels/products seen or mentioned, including Ford, Facebook, Kool-Aid, Cadillac, and GoreTex.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

A fair bit of drinking. Adult brothers get buzzed at a bar. Additional social drinking. An alcoholic takes a swig of hard liquor after a long dry spell.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Judge -- which stars Robert Downey, Jr. and Robert Duvall -- is an engrossing drama/legal thriller that covers some fairly mature, emotionally taxing terrain, including family estrangement, murder, power struggles, divorce, the death of a parent, and the emotions of the mourning process. But it also has themes of forgiveness and redemption. Characters swear frequently (including "a--hole," "s--t," and "f--k") and drink a fair bit, sometimes going overboard. Parents argue in front of and with their grown children, and a plot line about a murder includes shots of a mangled car and discussions of how a crime might have taken place. There's also some kissing/groping and a scene in which a woman talks about pleasuring herself. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

Parents say (6)
Kids say (6)

Based on 6 parent reviews

Duvall and Downey, Jr...who can out act the other? It is rather fun to watch.

Reality is not always pleasant, what's the story.

Hank Palmer ( Robert Downey Jr. ) -- a highly successful but sometimes entirely too slick defense attorney -- would never dream of going back to his hometown of Carlinville, Indiana. But filial duty calls after his beloved mother passes away, calling for a face-to-face between Hank and his older brother, Glenn ( Vincent D'Onofrio ), a gifted athlete who wound up never leaving home; his developmentally disabled younger brother, Dale (Jeremy Strong), who's forever carrying around a Super 8 camera and recording every family moment, including the saddest ones; and their father, Joseph ( Robert Duvall ), the town judge, who seems to have a soft spot for everyone but Hank. Then, when a recently paroled criminal whom Joseph sent to jail is found dead by the side of the road, the magistrate winds up the main suspect, leaving Hank with no choice but to be his fearsome father's counsel and ultimately deal with his family's divisions.

Is It Any Good?

There's no doubt that Downey Jr. can deliver on pretty much any role he takes on. In THE JUDGE, he imbues Hank with a certain cynicism that only he could get away with without making the main character entirely unlikable. And likability is important here, because Hank wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. He's arrogant, cocksure, and difficult in his own right.

The fact that the film's characters are complicated actually heightens its appeal. But Downey -- and, by extension, the film, since his character is so central to it -- might feel just a little too slick. There's a knowing sheen here that points to a self consciousness about the movie being a type of crowd-pleasing thriller, one that milks all the right emotional notes. But there's no false note in Duvall's performance. He allows the titular judge to be difficult to like, at best. There's one particular scene in which his character is subjected to the indignities of age and illness, and Duvall goes to all the necessary dark corners. To watch him and Downey, who's best when he's paired with Duvall, is to witness a master acting class.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Judge 's messages. What is it saying about family bonds? Who do you think the film is intended to appeal to? How can you tell?

What is the movie saying about forgiveness, especially when it comes to family?

Talk about the idea of family and estrangement and how the judge deals with it differently or similarly to other movies in the same genre. How would you characterize the Palmers? Are they close to each other? Are they bonded?

Movie Details

In theaters : October 10, 2014
On DVD or streaming : January 27, 2015
Cast : Robert Downey Jr. , Robert Duvall , Vera Farmiga
Director : David Dobkin
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Warner Bros.
Genre : Drama
Topics : Brothers and Sisters
Run time : 141 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : language including some sexual references
Last updated : May 25, 2023

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Movie Review

Back Home Again, and Little Has Changed

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By A.O. Scott

Oct. 9, 2014

Early in “The Judge,” Hank Palmer, a hotshot Chicago defense lawyer played by Robert Downey Jr. with his usual fast-talking swagger, learns that his mother has died. He packs a bag, says goodbye to his unfaithful wife and his adorable daughter (Emma Tremblay), and jumps in his Ferrari.

He drives only as far as the airport, however. Even though his Rockwellesque hometown is in Indiana, just one state over, Hank decides to fly rather than drive. Presumably to save time — something this long, baggy, meandering film, directed by David Dobkin from a screenplay by Nick Schenk and Bill Dubuque, otherwise has very little interest in doing.

Once home, Hank rediscovers the family from which he’s been mostly estranged and runs into a few other people too, all of them played by fine actors encouraged to graze in a meadow overgrown with thickets of plot and clumps of easy sentimentality. Hank is the middle brother in a trio, flanked by Glen (Vincent D’Onofrio), a high school baseball star settled into middle-aged disappointment, and Dale (Jeremy Strong), who has the kind of mental disability encountered only in movies: He walks around with a Super-8 camera, asking naïve questions that are alternately good for a cute laugh and preternaturally wise. He is less a sibling than a mascot.

The patriarch of the Palmer brood is the title character and the only reason to take an interest in this movie, since he is played by Robert Duvall. Judge Palmer (even his sons call him that) does not represent anything new for Mr. Duvall. He’s crusty, but with an occasional twinkle in his eye and a well-hidden soft spot. He is, more precisely, a collection of personality traits in search of a coherent character, which Mr. Duvall, by dint of sheer professionalism, comes very close to supplying.

What we know about the judge at the outset is that he was a domestic autocrat (a somewhat kinder version of the bad dad from “The Great Santini” ) who doted on his wife and has been sober for nearly three decades. On the bench, he is stern but fair, tempering his reverence for the law with a sense of humor and an occasional display of mercy. He and Hank don’t get along, though the smart money will be on their eventual reconciliation.

The road to that touching, foreordained moment passes through enough dramatic incident for three movies, none of them terribly original. For a while, Hank’s prodigal return is played for gentle, knowing laughs, as a comedy about a city slicker slumming it with the good country folk and rediscovering his roots in the process. He also rediscovers his high school sweetheart, Samantha, played by Vera Farmiga.

And then “The Judge” turns into a crime story, and a supershouty, macho-weepy, buried-family-secrets melodrama. A fellow just out of the penitentiary has died in a hit and run, and his blood turns up on the fender of the old man’s Cadillac. Guess who represents him in the murder trial that unfolds in his very own courtroom? (Actually Hank is the second choice, elbowing aside a local lawyer played by Dax Shepard, who hangs around to provide a touch of bumpkin humor.) The prosecutor is a vulpine outsider (Billy Bob Thornton) who turns out to have a score to settle with Hank.

Who doesn’t? Various secrets come dribbling out — about the paternity of Samantha’s daughter (Leighton Meester), about the car accident that ruined Glen’s baseball career and about the judge himself. They add up to a sprawl of narrative that is as unconvincing as the suspiciously sprawl-free, nostalgia-tinged town where it all takes place.

“The Judge” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Father-son swearing contests.

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The Judge Reviews

The familiarity of the story hurts what is Dobkin's otherwise pleasantly sincere and straightforward direction, and a number of fine performances.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 18, 2022

Robert Duvall gives a startlingly visceral performance in Robert Downey Jr's courtroom drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 26, 2021

The hardest working movie in show business. It's a film that wants to check all the boxes and tries just a little too hard.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 2, 2021

The supporting cast is a stellar assemblage of character actors, each offering a level of entertainment to compensate for lingering moments of overly sentimental reminiscence.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Dec 4, 2020

It vacillates between middlebrow familial melodrama, murder mystery, and half-baked courtroom drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Sep 6, 2019

It'll be great to watch while ironing your clothes one day.

Full Review | Aug 31, 2019

A surprisingly moving and compelling drama which, despite a lengthy running time, does not outstay its welcome and gives Downey Jr. scope to exhibit his considerable talents.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 31, 2019

There are the makings of a good, old-fashioned family drama here, but the film is bogged down by cliché and predictability that permeate the script.

Full Review | Mar 2, 2019

Robert Downey Jr. relishes this role, and it shows.

Full Review | Jan 30, 2019

A good example of talented actors taking mediocre material and making it passable entertainment.

Full Review | Jan 25, 2019

THE JUDGE is nothing more than an overwrought family film with a random appearance by Billy Bob Thornton and a few F-bombs for dramatic effect.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Dec 8, 2018

In the end, the absolutely brilliant performances of Downey and Duvall make the movie worth every minute, despite the shortcomings of the script.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 3, 2018

It's not particularly surprising, but I admit it was an agreeable and sometimes emotional experience [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 30, 2018

For a 140 minute movie, it's just painstakingly obvious that there is material here that should have been chopped out

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 2, 2017

This is a tale encapsulated simply enough within the deceptively simple parenthesis of a small-town family bonding saga. And of course, Downey and Duvall shine.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 11, 2017

The main issue with The Judge is that it's too long and schmaltzy, and the length makes the schmaltz worse because you have that much longer to be aware of it.

Full Review | Oct 18, 2017

Downey's Hank is basically Downey playing a character carefully calibrated for audience sympathies -- hey he's a smug jerk of a lawyer but he's a really good Dad to his loving young daughter.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Feb 28, 2017

It remains watchable to the very end, mostly thanks to a stolid cast that absolutely refuses to be sucked into the muddied tropes that make up the screenplay.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 14, 2016

One of those films that goes under the radar but has everything in it, making it a great film. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Apr 11, 2016

The main plot anchors itself with quite a lot of naturalism, an ironic half-smile, and that measured point of repulsion-attraction mastered by the great Luchini, expert on human toads that tie us with their tongues. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 7, 2016

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The Judge Is a Legal Thriller With No Drive or Urgency

In The Judge , a legal drama that builds to the requisite Hollywood Dark Night of the Soul, Robert Downey Jr. has a role so far inside his comfort zone that the movie has no drive, no urgency. You know what the character is; you know where he’s going. Downey plays Hank Palmer, an amoral, hugely successful defense attorney whose clients are all scumbags, because, he tells an indignant prosecutor, “Innocent people can’t afford me” (a great line, admittedly). He and his wife are divorcing because she had an affair when he wasn’t there for her and their daughter, because he only cares about winning because he had a traumatic childhood, etc. Then, on cue comes a turn that forces him to face his past and question his own integrity — to judge himself. His mom dies and he returns to his New England hometown, his two damaged brothers, and his estranged father (Robert Duvall), an esteemed judge who belittles what Hank does. When the judge is accused of a hit-and-run murder and the attorney is plainly incompetent, guess who feels compelled to take the case?

This is not by any means a bad movie. The script has its bright patches, the setting is picturesque, and the cast is full of actors you’ll want to see. The resolution of the murder case is unexpected (the victim was a murderous piece of trash), though it doesn’t upend the basic cornball formula. (Hydrangeas represent purity.) But the film is nearly two and a half hours, and director David Dobkin doesn’t rise above the level of a proficient TV hack. (Dobkin’s forte is comedy.) The biggest surprise is how few sparks pass between the two first-rate stars. Duvall’s role keeps him shut down, mulishy passive, and he and Downey don’t act as if they share a bloodline or fraught past. The younger actor seems suitably awed by his venerable co-star, but there’s no echo of Duvall’s craggy plainness or his sharp, avian profile in Downey’s bright-eyed glibness.

The other actors give solid, fat-paycheck performances — the sort that enable them to do projects they care about. Vera Farmiga has a salty waitress turn as the gal Hank bailed on (they don’t match up, either), Vincent D’Onofrio is the older brother whose baseball career Hank played a role in ruining, and Jeremy Strong wanders in and out of the action as the addled younger brother whose incessant videotaping of events looks to be a factor in the climax. (It isn’t, but it factors into the dark corners of the family’s past.) The showoff supporting performance is Billy Bob Thornton’s, as the prosecutor who comes from the big city, largely to humiliate Hank. Thornton is sleek and beady-eyed, his white hair swept back, his demeanor brrrrry cold. The character is more complex than he first appears, but for most of the film, he’s used as a slick villain to raise your blood pressure.

The thing to hang onto in The Judge is that small towns represent upright American values and that cities are where you go to toss away your moral compass. Also, that Robert Downey Jr. likes to play slippery hipsters who realize the full extent of their aloneness and resolve to slip no more. If he isn’t on some basic level boring the hell out of himself, he’s not the actor I think he is.

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Movie Review – The Judge (2014)

October 10, 2014 by Robert Kojder

The Judge . 2014

Directed by David Dobkin Starring Robert Downey Jr. , Robert Duvall, Billy Bob Thornton, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Dax Shepard, Leighton Meester

Big city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his father, the town’s judge, is suspected of murder. Hank sets out to discover the truth and, along the way, reconnects with his estranged family.

Let’s be realistic, courtroom dramas aren’t exactly the most exciting sub-genre of cinema out there. So that’s why you cast Robert Downey Jr. as a quick thinking, fast-talking smart-ass attorney. You don’t stop there though, you take Robert and you have him defend his cranky old father (Robert Duvall) that he hates, but must stick around and publicly defend because he may or may not have killed someone. He doesn’t remember what happened. Man, being old must suck.

Anyway, taking a dysfunctional family and having them settle their differences in court make all the technical legal mumbo-jumbo infinitely more tolerable. Don’t mistake The Judge for a comedy though – for whatever reason trailers promote it this way – because underneath the above-it-all exterior of lawyer Hank Palmer is an engaging tale of a man dropped into a position where he can rekindle relationships with both his family and friends, all while defending a father that despises his immoral practices of winning cases.

While most of these stories are entertaining with interesting characters and fantastic acting, it does feel like The Judge is cramming too much into its plot. Hank is also dealing with marital problems that really have no consequence on the plot. It’s also revealed that attorney Dwight Dickham (Billy Bob Thornton) is a rival , as if it’s supposed to be a twist, and is then never mentioned again. I realize that is somewhat of a spoiler, but it is so insignificant in the grand scheme of the story that your knowledge of this little detail won’t affect your enjoyment of the film of all.

In a related thought, while the marital problems for Hank felt worthless to the film, scenes of Hank interacting with his daughter are very well done. Usually child actors are annoying, but here Hank’s daughter shows mature genuine concern that her parents might end up getting a divorce, and successfully elicits an emotional reaction from viewers. Part of that also goes to the fact that Robert Downey Jr. is amazing at finding chemistry with child actors; first it was in Iron Man 3 and now The Judge .

For a 140 minute movie though, it’s just painstakingly obvious that there is material here that should have been chopped out of the film – regardless of quality – in an effort to focus on the aspects that cause The Judge to grab your attention; the love-hate relationship between an attorney and his judge father facing a prison sentence.

Joseph Palmer (Robert Duvall) has taken a more honest approach to his occupation throughout life, which causes a giant rift in how both think the process should be handled along with numerous headaches for Hank. There are also additional layers and story developments that add further to the story, and actually make The Judge not only a captivating film regarding Joseph’s innocence, but a fairly depressing movie about the later stages of life that we are all going to face one day. I was often reminded of last year’s Best Picture nominated Nebraska while watching The Judge ; a generous comment to give a film.

The acting and chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall is so excellent that it’s a shame a hefty portion of the film is focused on less interesting things, like past girlfriends. I can’t fault director David Dobkin too harshly though, because for someone who’s directorial credits up until this point only really include raunchy comedies like Wedding Crashers and Mr. Woodcock , he has actually constructed a bittersweet drama full of some well-integrated comedic relief.

Aside from the multiple disjointed plots that really don’t weave together, the only other grating problem with The Judge is that the narrative does get very heavy-handed towards the end, full of unnatural scenes that only exist to manipulate the viewer’s emotions. For example, the final five minutes of the film weren’t necessary and honestly felt like a thoughtlessly lazy way to end the story. That’s disappointing too because the movie really does hit its stride in the final act.

The Judge isn’t going to be a major Oscar contender for any category, but it is a thoroughly entertaining courtroom drama centered on the broken relationship of a father and his son. Occasionally, it tries way too hard to tug at the heartstrings, and is ultimately misdirected in areas by David Dobkin, but going from Fred Claus and Mr. Woodcock to The Judge is one hell of an improvement and shows that he has a promising career ahead of him. For now, just experience The Judge as a collection of scenes with great performances from great actors.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder – An aficionado of film, wrestling, and gaming. I currently write for Flickering Myth, We Got This Covered, and Wrestle Enigma. Follow me on Twitter .

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Film Review: ‘The Judge’

Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall make a memorable duo in this uneven but entertaining dysfunctional-family legal drama.

By Justin Chang

Justin Chang

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Gavels are slammed, tempers are lost and bowels are evacuated with great force in David Dobkin ‘s “ The Judge ,” an engrossing, unwieldy hurricane of a movie that plays like a small-town courtroom thriller by way of a testosterone-fueled remake of “August: Osage County.” Some elements ring truer than others in this ambitious blend of dysfunctional-family melodrama and legal procedural, but all of them are just about held together by the ferocious onscreen chemistry between two Roberts (Duvall and Downey Jr.), playing an overbearing father and a black-sheep son who find their already tense relationship literally put on trial. Refreshing as it is to see Downey step out of the Iron Man suit for a spell, the jury’s still out on whether an impressive talent roster can draw enough grown-up eyeballs to this overlong, resolutely old-fashioned male weepie, set for release Oct. 10 by Warner Bros.

For all the creakily elaborate Tennessee Williams-meets-John Grisham machinations cooked up by screenwriters Nick Schenk and Bill Dubuque (working from a story by Dobkin and Schenk), “The Judge” pivots on a simple yet inspired stroke of casting, pitting Duvall’s iconic gravitas against Downey’s razor-sharp wit, and then supplying no shortage of opportunities for both men to chew the scenery. Given that their characters are members of a legal profession that invites all manner of verbal pyrotechnics and rhetorical showmanship, the actors are all too happy to oblige.

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Absence has not made either man’s heart grow fonder, and the tensions are laid on so thickly right at the outset — lawyer vs. judge, town vs. country, etc. — that viewers may feel ready to strap themselves in for a two-hour-plus marathon of familial misery. Yet Dobkin steers us entertainingly enough through the Palmers’ past resentments and present recriminations, and the script is quite effective at summing up years of embittered history with a single cutting exchange. Joseph’s grieving-widower status doesn’t stop him from seizing every opportunity to remind Hank what a disappointment he is, especially compared with his reliable older brother, family man Glen (Vincent D’Onofrio), and his mentally challenged younger brother, Dale (Jeremy Strong), a regrettable Boo Radley stereotype who wanders around filming everyone with an old movie camera.

The presence of D’Onofrio in the cast provides an early tipoff that things are about to veer into “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” territory. Just when it seems Hank is ready to leave Carlinville for good, Joseph gets arrested and charged with a hit-and-run murder — an allegation that becomes even more serious when it turns out the victim is Mark Blackwell (Mark Kiely), a criminal lowlife whom the judge had particular reason to loathe. Joseph, a self-described “recovered alcoholic,” claims to have no memory of the night Blackwell was killed, and Hank, knowing his father will need the best defense possible, decides to stick around. But Joseph scorns the tricks of Hank’s trade and instead retains the services of an ineffectual local attorney (a bumbling Dax Shepard), convinced that the truth will prevail on its own — even when notoriously tough prosecutor Dwight Dickham (Billy Bob Thornton) is brought in to try the case against him.

Much of the pleasure of “The Judge” derives from the way Joseph and Hank clash over the proper way to handle their defense, carefully negotiating the thorny legal and moral ramifications of the case, then weighing them against their own difficult history and the sad fate that could await Joseph in the few years (maybe months) he has left. And the two leads superbly convey the complicated dynamic of a father and son who, for all their differences, are united by their colossal stubbornness, fierce intelligence and unwillingness to suffer fools gladly.

Neither actor is really attempting a change of pace here, and the material plays to their strengths and distinct personas at every turn — whether it’s Duvall laying down the law, so to speak, or Downey letting loose with a withering takedown of Carlinville’s white-trash population. That makes it all the more affecting on those rare occasions when Joseph and Hank achieve an honest moment of emotional connection, informed by their dawning awareness of the indignities of old age and the inevitability of death. Duvall’s performance, his most memorable in some time, carries unmistakable echoes of the many broken-down, hard-drinking, hermit-like men he’s played in movies past, yet never before has the 83-year-old actor rendered so painfully honest a portrait of a man whose body and mind are slowly failing him.

In an ambitious departure from such aggressively raunchy studio comedies as “Wedding Crashers” and “The Change-Up” (although like that film, “The Judge” does feature a memorable excrement explosion), Dobkin displays a nice sense of dramatic modulation here, informed by a keen understanding of the way family tensions tend to gather, erupt and then dissipate. Still, the director tends to overplay his hand whenever a heated confrontation comes along, whether it’s an over-studied image of father and son going their separate ways across an open field, or an argument whose melodramatic intensity is matched only by the gale-force winds outside their window.

Once the final verdicts are rendered and the consequences are doled out, the film goes regrettably soft as it seeks to tie up the various loose ends, in the process bringing Joseph and Hank’s relationship to the most sentimental conclusion imaginable. Still, better all this father-son Sturm und Drang than a forgettable subplot involving Hank’s attempts to rekindle an old flame (Vera Farmiga) and his brief flirtation with a sexy young bartender (Leighton Meester) who’s studying law. Along with Hank’s cheatin’ wife (a blink-and-you-miss-it performance by Sarah Lancaster), that’s about as rich and complex as the female roles get — not a huge surprise for this simmering cauldron of wounded male egos and latent daddy issues, but a disappointment nonetheless.

D’Onofrio adds a welcome voice of sanity as the most likable and long-suffering of the three Palmer brothers, while Thornton, acting for the umpteenth time opposite Duvall (whom he directed in “Sling Blade” and “Jayne Mansfield’s Car”), makes Dickham a wily and formidable opponent without turning him into an exaggerated villain. Elsewhere, the always underexposed Grace Zabriskie is aces in a small but vivid role as the hit-and-run victim’s enraged mother.

Fitting Dobkin’s heightened ambitions, the technical contributions are considerably more accomplished than in the director’s prior efforts. Janusz Kaminski’s 35mm cinematography lends a depth of polish to the picture, lensed primarily in the historic Massachusetts village of Shelburne Falls, whose waterfalls provide lovely background distraction at certain moments. Thomas Newman’s score manages, not without strain, to accommodate the film’s gradual shift from glib comedy to brooding dramatics.

Reviewed at Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Calif., Aug. 27, 2014. (In Toronto Film Festival — Gala Presentations, opener.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 141 MIN.

Production: A Warner Bros. release presented in association with Village Roadshow Pictures and Ratpac-Dune Entertainment of a Big Kid Pictures/Team Downey production. Produced by Susan Downey, David Dobkin, David Gambino. Executive producers, Bruce Berman, Steven Mnucin, Herbert W. Gains, Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Kleeman.
Crew: Directed by David Dobkin. Screenplay, Nick Schenk, Bill Dubuque; story, Dobkin, Schenk. Camera (Technicolor, 35mm/16mm, widescreen), Janusz Kaminski; editor, Mark Livolsi; music, Thomas Newman; production designer, Mark Ricker; costume designer, Marlene Stewart; sound (Dolby Digital/Datasat), Mark Ulano; sound designer/supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer, Tim Chau; special effects supervisor, Shane Gross; visual effects supervisor, Jim Rider; visual effects producer, Wendy Garfinkle; visual effects, Method Studios; stunt coordinator, Steven Ritzi; associate producer, Greg Garthe; assistant director, Mark Cotone; casting, Kerry Barden, Paul Schnee.
With: Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Dax Shepard, Leighton Meester, Billy Bob Thornton, Ken Howard, Emma Tremblay, Balthazar Getty, David Krumholtz, Grace Zabriskie, Sarah Lancaster, Mark Kiely.

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The judge ending explained.

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How Many Oscars Robert Downey Jr. Has

Robert downey jr.’s 39-year-oid comedy created a weird paradox with a $52 million john hughes movie, ryan reynolds' new movie confirms a surprising truth about his box office.

The Judge's ending tied up major plot threads, creating a dramatic conclusion between its main characters.
The movie leaves many major questions without a definitive answer, like if Joseph killed Mark Blackwell or if Hank ended up together with Sam.
The main themes of The Judge are forgiveness, accountability, and the idea of leading a dignified life.

The Judge packed quite a few emotional punches throughout its runtime, and the film's ending only made its plot even more dramatic. The Judge was released in 2014 to a rather lukewarm reception, but the movie has recently found new popularity on Netflix. Part of the reason for its resurgence in relevancy is because of the all-star cast of The Judge , which features several big names like Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall. The cast alone couldn't carry the entire movie, though, and The Judge also needed its emotional ending to stand a chance at making the list of the best drama movies on Netflix .

As The Judge reached its ending, it had several major plot threads to tie together. There was Joseph's trial, Hank's relationship with Sam, and his attempts to repair his relationship with his father. They all came to a climax at the same time, making for a very dramatic ending. Because there were so many threads to follow and resolve, though, the ending of The Judge could also do with a bit of explanation.

Robert Downey Jr. has had a long-celebrated career that has earned him many awards and nominations, but how many Academy Awards has he won?

Did Joseph Really Kill Mark Blackwell In The Judge?

The judge doesn't say for certain either way.

The central question at the heart of The Judge 's legal battle is whether Joseph meant to kill Mark Blackwell. Despite being such an important aspect of the movie, The Judge doesn't definitively answer whether Joseph killed Mark . The real events of Mark's death were hidden because Joseph couldn't remember them due to his chemotherapy. There's also evidence in both directions, as Joseph did hate Mark, but Hank also made a compelling case in his defense. Perhaps the biggest piece of evidence in the entire case, the fact that Joseph saw similarities between Mark and Hank, supported the idea that Joseph didn't voluntarily kill him.

The Judge is available to stream on Netflix.

While there isn't an outright answer to this question, there also doesn't need to be. Hank could have secured a not guilty verdict for his dad whether he did it or not by using his unethical legal practices, so it was never really about his guilt. Instead, the trial was about Joseph's relationship with Hank, like the rest of The Judge . Throughout the trial, Joseph was trying to show Hank how to take accountability for his actions. Joseph wanted to prove that he didn't need to bend the law like Hank did, and that he would accept whatever verdict came out of it.

Does Hank End Up With Sam In The Judge's Ending?

Hank & sam's relationship is open to interpretation.

The fate of Hank and Sam's romance was also left ambiguous by the ending of The Judge . Sam professed her love for Hank towards the end of the movie, but there wasn't a definitive answer to whether he chose to be with her . Shortly after Joseph's sentencing, Hank left Carlinville, the fictional town based on Massachusetts, where The Judge was filmed . However, there are also some clues that they ended up together, like the fact that Sam hosted Joseph's wake, where she shared an intimate moment with him. Their relationship can be interpreted in many ways, but it's clear they both share feelings for each other.

Why The Jury Found Joseph Guilty Of Voluntary Manslaughter

They were influenced by both hank & joseph's actions during the trial.

In a surprising twist at the end of The Judge , the jury found Joseph not guilty of murder, but did find him guilty of voluntary manslaughter. There were likely a couple of factors that went into their verdict. Voluntary manslaughter is a much less serious charge than murder, and the jury may have chosen to only convict Joseph for that because Hank very successfully made him look sympathetic. They didn't completely let him off the hook, though, partially due to the significant amounts of evidence against him, and because of Joseph's own actions during the trial, like openly admitting he hated Mark and wished him harm.

How Hank & Joseph Were Able To Forgive Each Other Explained

Both hank & joseph learned from each other & saw each other for who they were.

Throughout The Judge , both Hank and Joseph made inconsistent progress in repairing their relationship, and there were several times it seemed they wouldn't be able to reconcile. However, by the end of the film, they had both gained newfound respect for each other, and had even started doing father-son bonding activities, like fishing. The reason Hank and Joseph were able to forgive each other was because both of them started to see things from the others' perspective . Hank saw that his father was so tough on him because he wanted him to succeed, while Joseph saw that his son wasn't a bad man and had many decent qualities.

Another big factor in their forgiveness was just how much time they spent together. Since Hank had to stay with Joseph during the entire trial, they both had ample opportunities to show each other how much they had changed. When Lauren came to visit, Hank saw that Joseph could be a loving father figure, which helped shift his perspective. During the trial, Joseph saw how talented Hank was and how hard he worked for his clients, which combated the idea he had that Hank was just a bad kid.

The Real Meaning Of The Judge's Ending Explained

The judge's themes touch on dignity, forgiveness, & accountability.

At its core, The Judge is a movie about forgiveness and learning to take accountability for mistakes made in the past. Both Hank and Joseph made plenty of mistakes in the past; Hank had a wild youth and ended up hurting many people, like Glen and Sam, while Joseph was too harsh with Hank and ended up driving him away. Both of them had to own up to their mistakes - Hank by making amends and learning to practice dignity both in and out of the courtroom, and Joseph by being kinder and more forgiving - before they got their happy endings .

The Judge also focuses heavily on the idea of dignity. For instance, Joseph said multiple times that he had to live in Carlinville, and accepting his verdict with dignity was the only way he could live in town without being ashamed. Also, a major part of Hank's character development in The Judge involved learning how to be more dignified, which he showed after he returned to Chicago and couldn't perform his unethical style of law anymore . Hank's newfound dignity is also the reason Joseph considered his son to be the best lawyer he knew, and the reason Joseph got to die with dignity in The Judge 's ending.

In the 2014 drama The Judge, Robert Downey Jr. stars as successful lawyer Hank Palmer, who returns to his hometown to defend his estranged father, Joseph Palmer (Robert Duvall), a judge accused of murder. Vera Farmiga, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Dax Shepard, Billy Bob Thornton, and Leighton Meester round out the rest of the main cast.

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Movie Review: The Judge (2014)

D.M. Behrendt
Movie Reviews
4 responses
--> October 9, 2014

The Judge (2014) by The Critical Movie Critics

Defending the patriarch.

The success of David Dobkin’s (“ Wedding Crashers ”) The Judge lies in its ability to sound just like every other story in which a successful prodigal son returns from “the big city” in the midst of personal turmoil to attend a parent’s funeral (“Elizabethtown,” “Garden State,” etc.) when summarized aloud, but play out on screen as more than that. Its failures, however, stem from just how much more. While the cast, featuring the talents of Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vincent D’Onofrio, Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton and Leighton Meester, among others, would be capable of handling the myriad cliche complexities of The Judge in another context, the film’s script, editing, and especially its pacing, are not.

One of the biggest criticisms that’s been lobbed at The Judge so far is that it is too long. It is. A shorter run time and better editing would have significantly improved this film; worse than the parts that are bad is the inability of the production team to tell the difference between these parts and the good ones, and figure out how to balance them to make this story work.

In the first lines of The Judge it is established that neither Downey Jr.’s Hank Palmer and his professional associates — namely his current opposition in court, for whom David Krumholtz is an appropriately snarky fit — nor writers Bill Dubuque and Nick Schenk (“ Gran Turino ”) think their lead character is anything but trite. “The jaded lawyer with no respect for the law?,” a prosecutor says in the bathroom, after Palmer literally pisses on his competition, “how original.” Before you ask, Palmer sleeps just fine, in a sprawling modern home he is able to sustain because, in his words, “innocent people can’t afford me.”

Palmer returns to court only to receive word that his mother has died in the aforementioned Indiana town he so long ago fled. Palmer immediately flies back home — “just for the weekend,” of course — only to find himself trapped with his estranged, implacable father, the honorable Judge Joseph Palmer (Duvall, “ Jack Reacher ”), when, the night of the funeral, the Judge is involved in a car accident that leads to his being charged with the intentional murder of a man he once sentenced to twenty years in jail.

Also at home is Hank’s abrasive older brother Glen (D’Onofrio, “ Escape Plan ”), whose own tragic backstory we have also seen countless times, and camera-toting special needs younger brother, Dale (Jeremy Strong, “ Zero Dark Thirty ”), who manages to avoid caricature mostly by not having much screen time. While their relationships with the Judge appear to be okay, Hank’s broken connection with their father is marked by sour memories of a man who “issued canine calls to get our attention,” and “threw periodicals for sport.”

The cantankerous judge.

There are definitely parts of The Judge that I genuinely enjoyed. Downey Jr. is always a delight, even when forced to say lines like “the way he shakes my hand when he hugs everybody else, this family is a fucking Picasso painting.” Same goes for Farmiga’s tough high school ex-girlfriend, who apparently gets punchy one liners like, “I only own the one black dress” when she sees Hank fall after his mother’s funeral as a trade off for also having to explain how a near-death experience inspired her to become “the hero of [her] own story.” (Yawn). The obligatory cute and wise beyond her years daughter, Lauren (Emma Tremblay, “ The Giver ”), is cute and wise beyond her years. Robert Duvall commendably adds depth to his crotchety old judge, and provides us with a line that was probably supposed to relate to the core meaning of The Judge , if it had had one; the concept of the courtroom as “one of the last great cathedrals in the country, based on the premise that you and you alone are responsible for the consequences of your actions.”

In the end, The Judge comes across as the creation of someone going through a checklist of things that supposedly make movies emotional. Promising high school athlete who loses it all in a car accident, check. Brother who is somehow inhibited mentally, check. A small Midwestern town so small and Midwestern that there is a sign across main street advertising a blueberry festival, check. A temptatious old flame who oozes with the pheromones of unfinished business, check. It goes on. All of these elements come across as flat and crowded, and by the movie’s conclusion (a grueling two hours and twenty minutes after it starts), no one has really learned anything, or changed. Too boring to love or hate, The Judge is not a movie worth going out of your way to see this fall.

Tagged: father , lawyer , relationship , son

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'Movie Review: The Judge (2014)' have 4 comments

October 9, 2014 @ 7:39 pm Joltair

Can’t be good – I’ve been seeing Downey Jr. making the desperate rounds on the talk show circuit trying like hell to drum up interest in it.

October 9, 2014 @ 7:56 pm Eyerman

It just drags on and on and on and on and on and on

October 9, 2014 @ 10:40 pm low_carb_diet

Robert Duvall, another aging once-great actor reduced to the infamous crotchety old fart role.

October 27, 2014 @ 7:36 am Paul

Never cared much for Robert Downey Jr until I saw this movie. A long movie yes. It needed to be that long in order to showcase all the beautiful acting by all of the players. My wife and I enjoyed it tremendously.

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DVD & Streaming

Content Caution

In Theaters

October 10, 2014
Robert Downey Jr. as Hank Palmer; Robert Duvall as Joseph Palmer; Vera Farmiga as Samantha Powell; Billy Bob Thornton as Dwight Dickham; Vincent D'Onofrio as Glen Palmer; Jeremy Strong as Dale Palmer; Emma Tremblay as Lauren Palmer

Home Release Date

January 27, 2015
David Dobkin

Distributor

Warner Bros.

Movie Review

Now there’s a label that fits lawyer Hank Palmer to a T. Unscrupulous works, too. Of course, he would prefer something closer to brilliant. But whatever put-down his opponents might want to tag him with, this is the truth: Hank is a winner. He’s a guy who knows how to use the law, his nimble wits and any manner of verbal fireworks to his advantage in the courtroom. And that’s all that really matters to him.

Some may say that his rich, white-collar criminal clients are generally corrupt and always guilty. To which Hank will usually reply, “And?” After all, everybody deserves a defense. Besides, innocent people can’t afford his fees … or pay for the Jag in his parking spot.

Hank will admit that he’s hit a bit of a rough patch lately, however. Not in the courtroom. In life. His marriage to his model-pretty wife is on the skids. He’s a little worried about where his adolescent daughter will end up if there’s a divorce. And he just got word that his mom passed away.

As bad as that last bit of news is, even worse is the fact that he’ll now have to head back to Carlinville, Ind., that comatose little burg he turned his back on so many years before. He’ll have to go back and face his brothers. And deal once again with the Judge.

Judge Joseph Palmer is his cantankerous, holier-than-thou coot of a father. The man who rode him so hard as a kid. The hardnosed parent who threw him into juvenile detention at the age of 17. The disapproving so-and-so who wouldn’t even bury the hatchet long enough to show up at his own son’s graduation from law school. Even when said son graduated first in his class.

When Hank gets back, uh, “home,” he receives exactly the kind of reception he expects: warm hugs from his brothers and an icy handshake from the Judge. Oh well, it’ll all be over soon. But as much as Hank is determined to get in and get right back out after the funeral, something happens that derails his plans.

The Judge is arrested for murder.

That sanctimonious justice who presided over the Carlinville court for the last four decades is inexplicably accused of mowing down a abhorrent slug of a former defendant with his car. The man’s blood was found in the vehicle’s battered grill. And there are no skid marks at the scene.

In light of this damning evidence, a special prosecutor is being brought in to try the case. And all the Judge can say is that he can’t remember what happened. He’s “missing time,” he claims.

So now Hank’s going to have to spend time defending his lifelong nemesis. In spite of his near hatred for his father, in spite of his own internal objections, in spite of the Judge’s objections, he’ll have to stay in town and win this seemingly unwinnable case.

_Tenacious.

Bullheaded.

Those words also fit Hank. Whether he likes all of them or not.

Positive Elements

Can a father and son—at odds for years—find some kind of reconciliation? This movie says yes! Hank and the Judge both have long lists of blood pressure-raising accusations and wrongdoings to pin on each other. But they also both learn to see the good of the man underneath the mess, and come to forgive. They eventually praise each other’s strengths. And Hank selflessly sees his father through some of the most painful and difficult moments of the older man’s life.

This newfound focus on relational reparations also spurs Hank to reach out to other people who are important to him—from his older brother Glen to his former girlfriend Samantha to his young daughter Lauren. He expresses his love to each, and in some cases asks for forgiveness.

For his part, and for all of his stern hardheadedness, it becomes apparent that the Judge really does love and want the best for his wife and kids. He also reaches out to his adolescent granddaughter, hugging and kissing her the first time they meet. In court, he tells a recalcitrant father, “You and you alone are responsible for your actions.”

Spiritual Elements

When approaching his mother’s open casket, Hank fumble-handedly crosses himself in an attempt to show respect. He later asks the Judge if he believes there’s something after death. The old man replies that since he’s 72 and in the midst of Stage IV cancer, “What choice do I have?”

Sexual Content

Hank talks about two teen boys getting high in a car together and having sex. He calls a girl “semen-breath.” He also makes out with a young woman in a local bar who he later fears may be his daughter by way of his past girlfriend Samantha. Hank and Samantha make out passionately, caressing and groping.

Hank gives his wallet to his mentally challenged brother Dale, whereupon the young man reports, “You have a naked lady in here!” (We don’t see the picture.) The Judge crudely goads Hank by talking about his current wife playing “hide the pickle” with another man.

Violent Content

Hank accidentally slices his hand. He tumbles off a bicycle. We see a crumpled car after an accident. We hear the story of a man who murdered his 16-year-old girlfriend.

Crude or Profane Language

Close to 30 f-words and 15 s-words join more than a half-dozen uses of “a–,” and one or two uses each of “d–n,” “h—” and “b–ch.” God’s and Jesus’ names are misused over a dozen times. (God’s is combined with “d–n” eight or so times.) Crude slang is used for male genitalia.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Hank, Glen and Dale drink beer and shots at a bar, along with other patrons. The Judge, a 20-year-sober alcoholic, has Scotch while at a very low point. (Hank shares a drink with him.) Hank confronts a cop about him “huffing whippets” as a teen. Samantha says her daughter is the result of a combination of “Kool-Aid and Everclear.” A deceased man is said to have had enough drug and alcohol content in his bloodstream that it would have been difficult for him to stand upright.

Other Negative Elements

A running joke involves lawyers vomiting. Hank urinates on another lawyer while standing at a urinal. And while it’s not played for laughs, there is a difficult-to-watch scene focused on the Judge’s worsening illness and his inability to control his bowels and bladder. Hank openly wishes his father had died rather than his mother.

In some ways, this movie feels like it was designed to give seasoned thespians Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall lots of dramatic scenery to chew. In fact, it’s as tailor-made for Downey and his personal brand of snarky verbal gymnastics as any non-iron-suit-clad role might be.

Beneath the glib asides and beetle-browed courtroom angst, though, this judge-accused-of-murder tale is far less about legal entanglements than it is a slowly unspooling story of an estranged father and son—both chained to years of accumulated emotional baggage. Both men are weighed down by anger, guilt and remorse. And both are sinners questing for redemption—of a relational kind if not a spiritual one.

In that sense, this pic delivers encouraging messages of familial forgiveness. It becomes a satisfying if overly long-feeling saga of a father and son finding the bond they never knew through the pains of life they’d have rather avoided.

Of course, it’s those realistically depicted pains—played out in coarse verbal interactions, harsh accusations and wince-worthy visuals—that give this pic its R rating and make it, if you’re asking for my verdict, difficult to cozy up to with a popcorn and soda.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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The Judge Review

17 Oct 2014

142 minutes

Ever since Kiss Kiss Bang Bang launched his box-office renaissance nearly a decade ago, Robert Downey Jr. has become a human synonym for all the things that Hollywood considers edgy, quirky, and even bizarre. But the most surprising thing about The Judge is how little it delivers on that particular front. Its main peculiarity is that it is not peculiar at all; if anything, it is a rather old-fashioned film, seemingly teleported from another dimension where it is still the ’90s and Downey Jr. transitioned straight from Chaplin into the slick, airbrushed leading man he was originally intended to be.

Indeed, if it weren’t for the casting, The Judge might not be very memorable at all. From the set-up, it promises to deliver a tense, twisty, John Grisham-style courtroom drama, with Downey Jr.’s amoral black sheep lawyer having to defend his virtuous, principled father against a damning set of clues that point to manslaughter at the very least. Instead, however, the trial is a sideshow to the real story, a kind of wayward melange of Doc Hollywood and On Golden Pond that frequently teeters on parody in its wholesome portrayal of down-home American life.

Although there is a wealth of supporting players — Billy Bob Thornton as incoming prosecutor Dwight, Vincent D’Onofrio as Hank’s sensible brother Glen, and Vera Farmiga as his former sweetheart Sam — The Judge is really about a long-simmering dispute between father and son. And given the heft of those two players, notably Duvall, who shows no sign of burnout in the last strait of a very distinguished career, that’s quite an enticing prospect.

The fireworks come in fits and starts, and Downey Jr. is especially convincing as the whip-smart lawyer who is flashy and cynical without ever becoming seedy. Duvall, too, brings complexity to Joseph, a man who barely makes eye contact with his son yet shows a big heart to Hank’s young daughter. But when the two come together, that Big Scene never materialises, almost as if, in their exhaustive bid to cover all the awards-season bases, the scriptwriters came up with everything except some great dialogue.

The most squandered opportunity of all, however, is Thornton’s elegant Dwight Dickham, whose legal skills match Hank’s. Again, nothing really comes of it; when things start getting interesting in the courtroom, legal highs soon get pushed aside for yet more airing of dirty family laundry.

Ultimately The Judge doesn’t really know quite how to assert what it actually is, which is never more acute than in a scene where Joseph collapses in the bathroom, shit running down his leg. This would be heavy stuff even for an indie, but soon the tone is back to its usual, oddly jarring jauntiness, with bonding moments, wistful musings, and a completely ill-conceived subplot involving a girl who may or may not be Hank’s daughter.

It’s unfair to dump all the blame on one man’s door, but it does seem pertinent to suggest that David Dobkin might not have been the right director for this, having spent most of his time making rosy, male-centric comedies. Nevertheless, for all its duff notes, The Judge does show what a talent we have in Robert Downey Jr., and it could just be that its anodyne tone is proof that Downey Jr. is the Benjamin Button of Hollywood divas, getting more and more normal as the years go by.

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Review: <i>The Judge</i>: To Mock a Killing Bird

Review: The Judge : To Mock a Killing Bird

Robert Downey Jr and Robert Duvall in The Judge.

A judge may be deeply suspicious of the defense attorney in his court. One is sworn to dispense justice, the other bent on finding every legal loophole for clients to slip through. Hank (Robert Downey Jr.), a brilliant schemer of a Chicago lawyer, defends the guilty because “Innocent people can’t afford me.” Judge Joseph (Robert Duvall), a veteran judge in rural Indiana, has only contempt for such wily rule-bending. “Imagine a faraway place where your opinion matters,” he tells Hank when the younger man shows up in Joseph’s jurisdiction. “Now go there.”

That Joseph Palmer and Hank Palmer are father and son, and have been estranged for much of their lives, is the first selling point of director David Dobkin’s The Judge , a courtroom drama of antagonistic family values. The second and more pertinent attraction is the pairing of two exemplary actors: Downey, who has holidayed from his early eminence (and notoriety) by playing Tony Stark and Sherlock Holmes in a half-dozen fantasy blockbusters, and Duvall, the flinty patriarch of modern American cinema. Downey spits out dialogue at auctioneer speed; Duvall lasers that killer stare, like a male Medusa, or flicks a lizardly smile, which is even more chilling. Their collision-combustion strikes the expected sparks, in a movie that’s not quite worthy of the occasion. Billed as a heavyweight championship bout, The Judge is more a middle-of-the-card time-passer.

Like Ben Affleck’s Nick in Gone Girl , Hank has come home from the big city for his beloved mother’s death. His two brothers — the older, crippled Glen (Vincent D’Onofrio) and the younger, slow-witted Dale (Jeremy Strong) — greet him warmly. Not so Joseph, whom all his children call Judge, perhaps because he laid down his stern law to them instead of lifting them with his love. An Old Testament type, secure in both his moral righteousness and his judicial rectitude, the Judge lavished affection only on his late wife and his ’71 Coupe de Ville… because, as we know from Gran Torino , The Bucket List and the new St. Vincent , every codger needs a vintage car. Hank can’t stand his dad and has stayed away from him. As he explains to his 10-year-old daughter Lauren (Emma Tremblay): “Grampa Palmer’s dead to me.”

Grampa may be facing death because of a ride he took in his old Caddy. In the screenplay by Nick Schenk (who wrote Gran Torino ) and Bill Dubuque, Joseph becomes a suspect in the hit-and-run demise of one Mark Blackwell (Mark Kiely). Years before, the Judge had given a light sentence to Blackwell, who then committed a particularly heinous murder. The events left a blot of regret on the Judge’s conscience; the dead man left his bloodstains on the fender of that Coupe de Ville.

When arraigned, the Judge hires local doofus lawyer C.P. Kennedy (Dax Shepard) as his counsel, but to mount a compelling defense against the slick prosecutor Dwight Dickham (Billy Bob Thornton) he will require a really clever advocate. Hmmm, who’s available? Maybe his hated son, who’s ready to take the job because, he says, he’s a little light on his pro-bono work this year.

Dramatizing a murder trial in a small town with intertwined guilty secrets, The Judge keeps wandering into territory staked by Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird . There are no racial overtones, since the Palmers live in quite the whitest part of Indiana. But Hank’s mentally challenged brother Dale is an obvious clear avatar of Mockingbird’ s Boo Radley (whom Duvall played in the 1962 movie ). Hank also alludes to Lee’s lawyer hero when he drily notes, “Everybody wants Atticus Finch until there’s a dead hooker in the hot tub.” The blood on the Judge’s car is his dead hooker.

Dobkin, who directed Vince Vaughn’s sharpest comedy of the past decade ( Wedding Crashers ) and his worst ( Fred Claus ), moves to drama with a slower rhythm — The Judge runs, or ambles, at a running time of 2 hours and 21 minutes — but the same nudging of the audience: double-takes from the actors, a sudden storm during a big confrontation, the Thomas Newman score that points at the rise of any emotion like a grade-school teacher wielding a yardstick. Clever scenes, like Hank’s psychoanalyzing prospective jurors by asking what messages are on their bumper stickers, alternate with pokey detours. Hank’s old girlfriend Samantha (Vera Farmiga) is still in town… and she has a daughter (Leighton Meester)… who might be Hank’s! Fine, but can we get back to the trial?

The movie also goes heavier on bodily functions than an early John Waters film. In an early scene, Hank accidentally-on-purpose pees on the pants of a rival attorney. C.P., the Judge’s first lawyer, is so nervous as he approaches the courtroom that he vomits every morning. You start to wonder whether Dobkin is going to resurrect the joke about the old man who goes to his doctor. (Doctor tells him, “I’ll need a urine sample, a stool sample and a semen sample.” Old man says, “Here, take my underpants.”) Instead, he turns a moment when Hank intrudes on the Judge’s pathetic incontinence into a strange, strong affirmation of the father-son bond. As the Judge inches toward death, he becomes as helpless as a baby, and Hank is suddenly the parent cleaning up his child’s mess with a combination of duty, embarrassment and love.

Farmiga does small wonders with a thankless character: the wise, weary hometown girl who would be more comfortable in a Larry McMurtry multigenerational saga. Thornton is precise, ruthless and interestingly unknowable in the out-of-town prosecutorial sharpie role taken by George C. Scott in Anatomy of a Murder (a much sturdier small-town courtroom drama). There’s also Grace Zabriskie in the Grace Zabriskie role: the crazy lady she played on Twin Peaks and Big Love .

But you came for Downey and Duvall, and you get a lot of what they’ve got to give. Amazing that Duvall was in his forties when he first played lawyer Tom Hagen — and that first Godfather movie was more than 40 years ago. At 83, he’s old enough for false teeth, but he’s still got his chops; the Judge needs just a single bite to leave wounds on his ambitious son’s ego.

Downey, 49, might consider Hank pro-bono work between headlining in his big franchises, even though those movies flatter his strength of lending a comic touch to overbearing geniuses. His character in The Judge — as in The Soloist and Due Date , Downey’s only two other non-action-film leading roles of the last six years — has affinities to Stark and Sherlock: he’s a bright, tense guy whom the plot compels to come to the aid of people he might otherwise despise. The odd thing is that, these days, this accomplished, serious actor looks more comfortable in fantasy roles. He does fine as Hank when ladling out the spit and sarcasm. But in the quieter moments, he’s sometimes like a race car being gunned in neutral. He’s never Acting so much as when he’s Being Human.

Touching on home truths about justice and the law, aging parents and their balky children, The Judge launches enough emotional pyrotechnics to satisfy most audiences. They may overpraise it because it reminds them of older, better movies. Wouldn’t it be lovely to see a modern version of Mockingbird or Anatomy of a Murder ? Even the update of a solid John Grisham suspenser like The Client , A Time to Kill or The Rainmaker ?

It’s tempting to lay the tissue of a cherished old movie on a new film of similar intent and, our vision clouded by nostalgia for a favorite genre, see its retro appeal. Years from now, we may even apply that retro glow to this movie. We’ll think of its upmarket stars and honorable ambitions and wonder, “Why don’t they make movies like The Judge any more?”

The answer: They do, but on TV network law shows.

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‘The Judge’ (2014) Movie Review

By Brad Brevet

Without the performances of Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall , The Judge would probably end up being a film I would have dismissed outright. Director David Dobkin ( Wedding Crashers , The Change-Up ) is best known for his comedies, but here he’s directing a two hour and twenty minute, Indiana-set, father-son melodrama, working with a script from Nick Schenk ( Gran Torino ) and Bill Dubuque that was in serious need of trimming from the start. Nevermind the fact the film is largely generic, it’s just too long, overstuffed, often repeating scenes and unnecessarily wasting time to add another layer, merely for the sake of drama rather than storytelling.

To be fair, Dobkin isn’t completely out of his element, he just seems somewhat unsure of himself. The Judge is intensely formulaic, hitting beats at just the “right” time, be they comedic or dramatic, you know something meant for a laugh or a tear is just around the corner as every ten minutes the drama begins to fade only to be jolted back to life with a laugh or a gasp. Helping matters in the midst of the fluff are Downey Jr. and Duvall, telling the story of Hank (Downey Jr.), a New York lawyer who hadn’t been home to see his father (Duvall), a small town Indiana judge, in twenty years until learning of his mother’s death.

Back home for only a few days, Hank is on the plane and ready to head back to the Big Apple when he learns his father has hit and killed a man, a man his father had years earlier sentenced to prison on a murder charge. The only catch, he doesn’t remember doing it, and Hank will eventually be responsible for his father’s legal future.

That, however, is only the main story, within this simple tale are a myriad of side stories including an upcoming divorce, old girlfriends, the daughter of an old girlfriend, the autistic brother, the brother that could have been a professional baseball player and the daughter that’s never met her grandfather. It’s just too much for one movie and while the running time would suggest each plot strand gets its due, characters will frequently disappear and some seemingly forgotten altogether, while stories of the past continually bubble to the surface only to never be fully explained.

The saving grace, making this a film that’s easily tolerable, though instantly forgettable, are Downey and Duvall. Downey has mastered the “puppy dog eyes” reaction shot, you believe the emotions he’s portraying, whether it’s frustration, anger or fear and it doesn’t hurt he’s acting opposite Duvall whose stubbornness as an aging, respected small town judge is spot on. A bathroom scene between the two is the best the film has to offer as it begins in sadness and ends in laughter. It feels honest and it does so because it comes from a place of honesty, which makes comparing to the rest of the feature fruitless.

Dobkin seems to have gone to the Steven Spielberg school of lighting as white light dominates the background of damn near every indoor shot. Then again, perhaps the credit there is due to frequent Spielberg collaborator, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski . Either way, it felt like a cheap knock-off, sort of like Thomas Newman ‘s uninspired score, which is immediately recognizable as Newman, a composer I truly love, who really seems to have thrown in the towel on this one before he even started. Scenes that don’t need an ounce of music behind them are layered with it, again suggesting Dobkin lacked the confidence to just let the drama play out as performed.

The supporting cast is mostly window dressing if not laughable. Billy Bob Thornton plays the prosecuting attorney and at one moment he slams open one of those collapsible drinking cups as if he just dropped knowledge that would even make God shudder, but all it did was make the audience laugh. I also have to add a small bit of compassion for Vincent D’Onofrio as Hank’s sad sack, overweight older brother. If this is the kind of type-casting D’Onofrio can expect in films moving forward it’s a bit sad as he’s let himself go physically and won’t be good for much else soon enough.

Suffice to say, The Judge is an adequate film, but hardly a film anyone will be talking about 24 hours after seeing it. Dobkin may have a future in drama, but if so he’s going to need to gain a little more confidence in his work, what to include in a film and what to cut. This screenplay could have been chopped by 40 pages or so, trimming plot threads that go nowhere, cutting things down and getting to the meat of the story and controlling it rather than letting it control him.

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Judge, The (United States, 2014)

Two words that come to mind when considering The Judge are generic and predictable. It's also well-intentioned and earnest (perhaps to a fault). There are some good scenes and instances of strong acting but the project as a whole is so familiar that it feels like a collage of moments and scenes from other, better films. Although there are times when it taps into a vein of heartfelt drama, there are as many instances when it veers dangerously close to becoming manipulative pap. The film's lack of ambition is distressing, especially when one considers the quality of the actors involved. In fact, there are times when the performances are good enough to overcome the screenplay's inherent weaknesses but one can't help but wish the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton, and Vincent D'Onofrio had been provided with something more worthy of their thespian abilities. This is an easy paycheck for them all: an overlong crowd-pleaser that mistakes a hackneyed catharsis for something more meaningful.

The Judge is yet another movie about a prodigal son coming home for the funeral of a parent. In this case, the son in question is Hank (Downey Jr.), a hotshot big city lawyer whose return to his roots in rural Carlinsville, Indiana is anathema to him. Still living there are his brothers (Vincent D'Onofrio and Jeremy Strong) and his estranged father, Judge Joseph Palmer (Robert Duvall), with whom he hasn't spoken since leaving to make his reputation. While Hank is in town paying his final respects to Mom, Dad is arrested for murder. The accusation seems laughable at first but, as the facts emerge, it becomes clear that more than the judge's legacy is at stake. After initially rebuffing his son's offer to represent him, the judge relents and Hank brings his experience and flair to Carlinsville's biggest legal theater.

The Judge is never really about whether Joseph is innocent or guilty. His crime (or lack thereof) is a red herring - an excuse to keep father and son together for a while and give them reasons to interact and remember the good times they had before their relationship frosted over. (These are primarily illustrated via old home movie clips rather than flashbacks, although there are instances of the latter as well.) The movie features two themes: the big city/small town culture clash that defines Hank's past and present and the healing of his fractious relationship with the judge. The "mystery" of what happened on the night of the murder is treated as a secondary concern.

Director David Dobkin ( Wedding Crashers , Fred Claus ) is a purveyor of lowbrow mainstream fluff and, although this digs a little deeper than his usual fare, it constructs interpersonal relationships out of clichés. The storyline is obvious and never veers from its expected trajectory: hostile son returns home with a chip on his shoulder only to discover that, though interaction with his family and an old flame, he may have left behind his humanity when he hit the big time. In the meantime, he goes through the process of reconnecting with his father. As far as it goes, the story is reasonably well told but it doesn't go anywhere that's surprising or interesting.

Robert Downey Jr., who's widely recognized as one of the half-dozen best actors currently working, gives a performance that's a little too showy to be believable. He says all the lines, conveys all the emotions, and makes us laugh at his occasional jokes, but we never fully lose sight of Downey Jr. Robert Duvall, on the other hand, inhabits the character of the judge fully and completely. His low-key intensity is in direct contrast with Downey Jr.'s flamboyance. Some of the supporting actors give impressive turns in small roles: an underused Vera Farmiga as Hank's ex-girlfriend, Vincent D'Onofrio as Hank's older sibling, Billy Bob Thornton as the prosecuting attorney, and Leighton Meester as a young girl with a possible connection to Hank.

It's hard not to see The Judge through the same lens that one views the likes of August: Osage County , This Is Where I Leave You , and even Nebraska : all films about people who return to their roots after trying hard to forget where they came from. Due to its unwillingness to do the heavy lifting necessary to explore true emotions, The Judge provides a lesser telling of this same basic story. To some extent, the performances (especially those of Duvall and Farmiga) make this a journey worth taking despite the shortcomings, but it's hard to deny the frustration of seeing so little accomplished with the assembled talent. The Judge could have been great, but it's merely palatable.

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By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

How did talent like this conspire to pump out such bilge? I mean, really. You expect fireworks when the always wily Robert Downey Jr. plays a slick Chicago lawyer called home to Indiana to defend his strict, disapproving judge daddy (the great Robert Duvall) on a murder charge. What you get is a fuse that never ignites. There's much more in this overstuffed, overlong slog, including Downey mixing it up with an ex-love (Vera Farmiga) and a legal nemesis (Billy Bob Thornton). But director and co-writer David Dobkin coats every cliché with cheap theatrics. Go ahead, see The Judge just for Downey and Duvall. But to cite another recent dud, this is where I leave you.

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The film turns the mouthy, shamelessly lazy Garfield into an action hero.

It’s hard out there for family audiences. First the quality deficit of last week’s "IF" and now the further descent of "The Garfield Movie," only in theaters and probably your first destination choice for kids over the Memorial holiday weekend. What a bummer.

This misbegotten misfire looks to score at the box office until dire word of mouth kills it. Why the letdown? "The Garfield Movie" is brand marketing from filmmakers who don’t even bother to hide the blatant product placement. Lacking inspiration and perspiration, this despairingly off-kilter toon looks like a movie, talks like a movie, but feels like a cynical cash grab.

All the elements are there. It’s an outdoor adventure for everyone’s favorite indoor cat. There’s Chris Pratt voicing Garfield, the tubby orange tabby who hates Mondays and loves lasagna. Samuel L. Jackson does the honors for his cool cat dad Vic.

What goes wrong? Start with the basic idea. Gone is the deadpan sarcasm of the comic strip that Jim Davis started in 1978 and continued in a syndicated TV series. The casual putdowns that Bill Murray built into two "Garfield" live-action movies from the aughts is also MIA.

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"The Garfield Movie," soon to be infamous for its bad decisions, turns the mouthy, shamelessly lazy Garfield into an action hero, voiced by Pratt with an energetic whoosh you hear in his Mario in "The Super Mario Bros. Movie." What the whoosh is doing here defies understanding.

After a prologue showing Garfield abandoned as a kitten by dad Vic and adopted into a cushy life by the human and humane Jon Arbuckle (Nicholas Hoult), Garfield is off to the mischief races with Jon’s not-too-bright dog Odie (Harvey Guillén does the barks and whimpers).

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In no time, Garfield and Odie are kidnapped by the feline Jinx (Hannah Waddingham), a criminal crony of Vic’s who blames him for botching a milk heist that sent her to the pound. Having escaped, Jinx forces Vic, Garfield and Odie into a second robbery that intensifies the risk.

It’s doubtful that creator Davis and Garfield fans of the last half century would recognize the over-caffeinated kitty in these generic pyrotechnics directed by Mark Dindal ("The Emperor’s New Groove," "Chicken Little"). "I do my own stunts," brags Garfield, "me and Tom Cruise."

So there goes smartphone junkie Garfield (the better to order food), zipping around like a speed demon on a mission impossible that Cruise himself would envy as the tabby bends back a tree branch like a slingshot to shoot himself through the air and onto a speeding train.

Yikes! Who is this super kittycat? Did you ever imagine sleepyhead Garfield mixing it up with Jinx and her doggie criminal peeps, Roland (Brett Goldstein) and Nolan (Bowen Yang). It’s a wonder they didn’t put Garfield in a mask and pass him off as a Marvel superhero.

Credit the movie with tugging at the heartstrings by reuniting Garfield and his daddy. But the script by Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove and David Reynolds feels like like artificial intelligence cobbled it together from other, better movies (think "The Secret Life of Pets").

Nowhere to be seen is the cat who made a joke out of casual indifference. To enjoy "The Garfield Movie," it will help to be five years old or under, though even the toddler set is likely to cough up this recycled 101-minute hairball and move on. I suggest you do the same.

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The Judge movie review & film summary (2014)
The Judge. Director David Dobkin gave us " Wedding Crashers " nearly a decade ago, and we who hooted heartily at the disreputable acts abetted by the rite of holy matrimony will be forever grateful. We might even pardon any lingering counts against his twin crimes against comedy, " Fred Claus " and " The Change-Up .".
The Judge (2014)
Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.), a brilliant but shady attorney, returns to his Indiana hometown after learning that his mother has passed away. His arrival triggers renewed tension between ...
The Judge (2014)
The Judge: Directed by David Dobkin. With Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton. Big-city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder. Hank sets out to discover the truth; along the way he reconnects with his estranged family.
The Judge Movie Review
Parents need to know that The Judge-- which stars Robert Downey, Jr. and Robert Duvall-- is an engrossing drama/legal thriller that covers some fairly mature, emotionally taxing terrain, including family estrangement, murder, power struggles, divorce, the death of a parent, and the emotions of the mourning process.But it also has themes of forgiveness and redemption.
'The Judge' Review
The supporting cast is strong, with a handful of familiar faces in key roles, but most arcs are left underdeveloped. Vincent D'Onofrio and Jeremy Strong portray Hank's brothers, Glen and Dale, with Billy Bob Thornton and Vera Farmiga in the roles of the prosecuting attorney, Dwight Dickham, and Hank's high school sweetheart, Samantha Powell, respectively; yet, sadly, very little time is spent ...
'The Judge' Stars Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall
Crime, Drama. R. 2h 21m. By A.O. Scott. Oct. 9, 2014. Early in "The Judge," Hank Palmer, a hotshot Chicago defense lawyer played by Robert Downey Jr. with his usual fast-talking swagger ...
The Judge
The Judge Reviews. The familiarity of the story hurts what is Dobkin's otherwise pleasantly sincere and straightforward direction, and a number of fine performances. Full Review | Original Score ...
The Judge (2014)
A Nice Career Topper For Duvall. gavin6942 22 February 2015. Big city lawyer Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) returns to his childhood home where his father (Robert Duvall), the town's judge, is suspected of murder. Hank sets out to discover the truth and, along the way, reconnects with his estranged family.
The Judge (2014 film)
The Judge is a 2014 American legal drama film directed by David Dobkin. The film stars Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall with Vera Farmiga, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Dax Shepard and Billy Bob Thornton in supporting roles. The film was released in the United States on October 10, 2014. It received mixed reviews; critics praised the performances of Duvall and Downey, and Thomas Newman ...
The Judge Review
This review is part of IGN's coverage of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. The Judge snowballs Robert Downey Jr.'s modern career into a quintessential role. Hank Palmer, a high-profile ...
The Judge
Satellite Awards. Big city lawyer Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) returns to his childhood home where his estranged father, the town's judge (Robert Duvall), 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 Is a Legal Thriller With No Drive or Urgency
movie review Oct. 10, 2014. The Judge Is a Legal Thriller With No Drive or Urgency. ... In The Judge, a legal drama that builds to the requisite Hollywood Dark Night of the Soul, Robert Downey Jr ...
Movie Review
October 10, 2014 by Robert Kojder. The Judge . 2014. Directed by David Dobkin. Starring Robert Downey Jr. , Robert Duvall, Billy Bob Thornton, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Dax ...
Film Review: 'The Judge'
Film Review: 'The Judge'. Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall make a memorable duo in this uneven but entertaining dysfunctional-family legal drama. Gavels are slammed, tempers are lost and ...
The Judge Ending Explained
The Judge packed quite a few emotional punches throughout its runtime, and the film's ending only made its plot even more dramatic.The Judge was released in 2014 to a rather lukewarm reception, but the movie has recently found new popularity on Netflix. Part of the reason for its resurgence in relevancy is because of the all-star cast of The Judge, which features several big names like Robert ...
Movie Review: The Judge (2014)
One of the biggest criticisms that's been lobbed at The Judge so far is that it is too long. It is. A shorter run time and better editing would have significantly improved this film; worse than the parts that are bad is the inability of the production team to tell the difference between these parts and the good ones, and figure out how to ...
The Judge
Movie Review. Rapacious. Now there's a label that fits lawyer Hank Palmer to a T. Unscrupulous works, too. Of course, ... This movie says yes! Hank and the Judge both have long lists of blood pressure-raising accusations and wrongdoings to pin on each other. But they also both learn to see the good of the man underneath the mess, and come to ...
The Judge Review
The Judge Review. Hotshot Chicago attorney Hank Palmer (Downey Jr.) is summoned to his small-town home for his mother's funeral. As Hank is leaving, his father (Duvall), a local judge, is ...
Review: The Judge: To Mock a Killing Bird
October 8, 2014 9:30 AM EDT. A judge may be deeply suspicious of the defense attorney in his court. One is sworn to dispense justice, the other bent on finding every legal loophole for clients to ...
'The Judge' (2014) Movie Review
Movie review of The Judge, a rather sloppy and formulaic melodrama made tolerable thanks to performances from Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall.
Movie Review: 'The Judge' Starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall
October 10, 2014, 10:42 AM. Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall star in "The Judge." Claire Folger/Warner Bros. -- Starring Robert Downey Jr ., Robert Duvall and Vera Farmiga. Rated R. Four-and-a ...
Judge, The
Judge, The (United States, 2014) October 09, 2014. A movie review by James Berardinelli. Two words that come to mind when considering The Judge are generic and predictable. It's also well-intentioned and earnest (perhaps to a fault). There are some good scenes and instances of strong acting but the project as a whole is so familiar that it ...
The Judge (2014)
Summaries. Big-city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder. Hank sets out to discover the truth; along the way he reconnects with his estranged family. Hank Palmer is a successful defense attorney in Chicago, who is getting a divorce. When his brother calls with the news that ...
'The Judge' Movie Review
There's much more in this overstuffed, overlong slog, including Downey mixing it up with an ex-love (Vera Farmiga) and a legal nemesis (Billy Bob Thornton). But director and co-writer David Dobkin ...
Your Honor on Netflix: Season 1 Recap, Cast, and Ending
"Anyone who likes a great mystery thriller is going to love Your Honor," teases star Bryan Cranston.
"True Crime Today" Judge Approves Limited DNA Retesting in Scott ...
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Reagan movie busts through liberal Hollywood bias in August open. By Paul Bedard. June 3, 2024 10:08 am. . Like a lot of young students in 1980, Howard Klausner was a Jimmy Carter guy when the ...

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Film Review: ‘The Judge’

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