Review of The Judge (2014) by Maksim B — 10 May 2015

A solid drama The Judge may explore pretty clichéd territories, but it completely succeeds to engage the audience into its predictability with focused direction, enough drama and sentimentality, and formidable performances by its two leading actors. A journey into family reconciliation, pride and honor this formulaic drama compensates for all its predictability with cliffhanging courtroom scenes and the brilliant presence of Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall.

Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) is an extremely success A-class lawyer who enjoys his career and tries to stay as far as possible from his estranged family. When his mother dies and his father is charged with the murder of a local criminal in a small town in the middle of the US, Hank has to stay much longer in his birth town and not only to defend his father , but to reconnect with him. Told like that, the story does not seem special at all. Its clichéd presentation of the verbally aggressive, ultra successful Hank (who actually delivers some good moments of smiles) and his father, the conservative and raw Judge Palmer (Robert Duvall), who has never been closed with his son, is a painfully well-known depiction of the family members who will have to reconcile throughout the whole 140 minutes of the movie.

The Judge would have been a pretty boring movie if it was not for three specific decisions of director David Dobkin. Having two excellent actors as Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall is an easy task, especially if you let them show what they are capable of. Dobkin surely does so and the raunchy, verbally aggressive Downey Jr. faces his counterpart - the conservative, raw Robert Duvall. The chemistry betwee both is superb and by adding up an excellent level of courtroom suspense and slick courtroom clichés in favor or Downey Jr., The Judge becomes actually an enjoyable delivery.

In conclusion, it still remains a mystery to me why The Judge was trashed by the critics. True, it is overlong, a bit slow in the mid-part and clichéd, but this is all compensated by the performances, the suspense and the right amount of romance, humor, drama and final bitter-sweet realism. An excellent home entertainment court drama, The Judge is worth being seen!