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The Judge is the perfect example of a mixed bag; a movie brilliantly cast and shot, but one which follows an over length script riddled with clichés.
Let’s see how many you can spot. Robert Downey Jr is Hank Palmer, a hugely successful Chicago defence attorney on the verge of divorce after finding out his wife has cheated on him. He returns to his tiny hometown in Indiana for his mother’s funeral and attempts to mend his broken relationship with his judge father, Joseph (Duvall).
Hank also meets older brother Glen, whose promising career as a baseball player was ended prematurely and is now the standard family man working in a tyre store, and younger brother Dale, who constantly records everything with his handheld camera as a result of his mental disabilities.
Due to an only-in-Hollywood sequence of events, Joseph ends up being charged with a hit-and-run murder (naturally the victim is a ghost from the past that Joseph had convicted 20 years prior). Thus, Hank ends up defending his father despite numerous protests, and is pitted against the venomous prosecutor Dwight Dickham (Thornton).
That’s the gist of it; if you had a list of courtroom drama plot points, it’d be fair to say The Judge would tick the majority of boxes. However, due to the superb cast, it is possible to overlook these and revel in the solid performances.
Downey Jr. is his usual charismatic, overblown self, which never works better than in the courtroom where he can talk smarter and faster than anyone around him. He argues his case in a whirlwind of legal wrangling and effusive language.
Basically, combine the suave, smooth-talking Iron Man with the deductive, incisive Sherlock Holmes, and you have Hank. ‘RDJ’ might not change his style much, but it works. He isn’t the highest paid actor in the world for nothing.
Billy Bob Thornton seems to be getting better with age, bringing gravitas to the film with another fine performance littered with ferocity and determination, proving himself a worthy adversary in the courtroom.
Duvall also brings his A-game, displaying a wide emotional spectrum that really conveys the stress and hurt of a man, devastated by his broken family.
The cinematography is flawless, thanks to stunning work by photography director Janusz Kaminski. The small, isolated town looks exactly that, the courtrooms are painted in shades of brown and grey and bleed claustrophobia, while away from the courtroom the lighting is ramped up and the greenery emphasised.
Unfortunately, the film has some glaring faults that are hard to ignore. There is an overbearing sense of familiarity in the script, with the writers feeling no need to disguise them to the extent that many stock characters you can see coming a mile away.
For example, there’s an entirely throwaway sub-plot involving Hank’s high school sweetheart Samantha, who happens to have a daughter born nine months after Hank left town.
It doesn’t help that the running time almost reaches a bum-numbing two-and-a-half hours. The entire romance, shoddily conceived in the first place, should have been jettisoned in the editing room and it would have made for a more concise, stronger film.
The actual court case itself presents a few twists and turns that are genuinely interesting, but most of it is revealed through groan-inducing coincidences or convenient flashbacks.
With the acting pedigree on offer and fizzling chemistry between the characters, there was a strong opportunity to create something truly special here, so it is disappointing to not see such potential realised.
Many of the plot beats seem to have been included purely to tug at the heartstrings of the viewer, where showing a bit of subtlety would have been much preferred. I genuinely though at times that someone would burst on to the screen plucking away at a harp, it was that obvious. It’s too overwhelming, and a truly great film would not have to try so hard to be compelling.
Overall then, The Judge is nothing you haven’t seen before and certainly doesn’t freshen up the genre, but it is saved from bargain bin wilderness thanks to some truly fine acting and cinematography.
* Showing in Cineco, Seef II, Saar Cineplex
