The Judge

Best picture of Downey/Duvall but this scene not in movie

I had really high hopes for ‘The Judge’ after seeing the previews.  I had not yet ready any reviews because I always wait to read them until after I have seen the movie so I can see if we agree.  This time, we don’t.

I thought this was a great movie.  I happen to find smart men sexy and I happen to like movies about relationships and families, along with a little mystery.  You know, a movie with a storyline that I have not already seen twice this week.

Robert Downey Jr plays Hank Palmer, a cocky Chicago defense lawyer who goes to his home town in Indiana for his mother’s funeral and ends up having to defend his estranged father, the Judge, against a charge that he ran over and killed a man he’d sentenced to jail 20 years earlier.  Robert Duvall plays the Judge.  Winning & powerful couple of actors and they played well off each other.  As the evidence mounts, more and more secrets come out about this family dynamic and there are some heartbreaking moments.  Great stuff.

There are some creepy, unnecessary moments…RDJ makes out with a girl in a bar and later we find there is a possibility that she may be his daughter.  Ick.  (Spoiler: She is not his daughter).  She could have been referenced instead of seen. There is an unnecessary fight between Hank and his wife that could have been explained away instead.  Dax Shepard is his usual annoying self as an attorney/antique salesman.  He could have been eliminated too.  And the movie was a little too long.

Some really good stuff from others too:  Billy Bob Thornton is the prosecutor, Ken Howard is the presiding judge and the little girl that plays Hank’s daughter, Emma Tremblay, is adorable and I think kids in movies are usually annoying.  Vincent D’Onofrio and Jeremy Strong play Hank’s brothers.  Vera Farmiga is Hank’s ever horny old girlfriend (and mom of icky make-out girl).   

I recommend it and if I had stars or something, I’d give it 3 out of 5…would have been a 4  at an hour and a half but it lost one star for 2 hours, 21 minutes.   It lost an editing star.