movie review 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 .”

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.

• Robert Downey Jr. as Henry "Hank" Palmer
• Jeremy Strong as Dale Palmer
• Dax Shepard as C.P. Kennedy
• Robert Duvall as Judge Joseph "Joe" Palmer
• David Krumholtz as Mike Kattan
• Vera Farmiga as Samantha
• Billy Bob Thornton as Dwight Dickham
• Vincent D’Onofrio as Glen Palmer
• Emma Tremblay as Lauren Palmer
• Leighton Meester as Carla
• Balthazar Getty as Deputy Hanson
• Grace Zabriskie as Mrs. Blackwell
• Ken Howard as Judge Warren
• Bill Dubuque
• Nick Schenk
• David Dobkin

Cinematography

• Janusz Kaminski

Original Music Composer

• Thomas Newman

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Common Sense Media Review

Mature legal drama is superbly acted but a bit predictable.

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…

Why Age 16+?

Frequent swearing, including "f--k," "hell," "piss,&quo

A guy makes out with a much younger girl at a bar, kissing her and groping her b

Some labels/products seen or mentioned, including Ford, Facebook, Kool-Aid, Cadi

The story centers on a murder trial; a man is found dead by the side of the road

A fair bit of drinking. Adult brothers get buzzed at a bar. Additional social dr

Any Positive Content?

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

Of the three Palmer brothers, Dale is the sweetest and the one who truly acts wi

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.

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.

Products & Purchases

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

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.

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.

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.

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 .

Where to Watch

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Parent and Kid 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

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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The Judge Reviews

[...] as predictable as it sounds, “The Judge” is anything but that. The film might be a family drama, but it’s refreshingly adult [...] and filled with surprising emotional honesty.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 9, 2024

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

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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.

• movie review
• robert downey jr.

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‘The Judge’ Film Review

“We need to establish a firm defense,” says Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr). “There’s no WE here, Henry…I wished I liked you better,” replies Joseph Palmer (Robert Duvall) to his middle son who returned home to help bury his mother and is now trying to help defend his father who’s suspected of murder in The Judge .

Big city hotshot lawyer Hank Palmer, who specializes in defending guilty clients, returns home to the little town of Carlinville to pay his respects to his mother, who’s just passed away. It’s a trip and ordeal he’s dreading, especially because he and his father, a respected and revered judge in town, haven’t gotten along in years.

After attending his mother’s wake and funeral, Hank plans to take the first flight out the very next morning. He even makes it onto the plane before getting a call from his big brother, Glen (Vincent D’ Onofrio), that their father has been taken to the police station for questioning regarding a fatal hit and run.

With blood of the victim matching the blood found on Joseph’s damaged car’s front fender and the victim being the only person in town that the Judge openly hated, the senior Palmer is soon on trial for first-degree murder. Despite their feelings of contempt for one another, Joseph finally agrees to let his son defend him, and Hank sets out to discover the truth of what happened that night and to save his father from prison.

With stand-out performances by Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall, wonderful cinematography, and a powerful score, The Judge is an effective although overlong and at times over melodramatic film. Robert Downey Jr. delivers a memorable performance as Hank, the morally questionable, cutthroat lawyer who still yearns for his father’s respect and approval.

Duvall is spot on as Joseph, Hank’s father, who’s the old-fashioned, tough judge in town. Joseph can be pious and even incredibly mean when he so desires, but in his own way, he still wants to reconnect with his estranged son. The two actors have great chemistry on screen and play beautifully opposite each other.

Unfortunately, Vera Farmiga’s talents are wasted portraying the one-dimensional Samantha Powell, Hank’s old sweetheart and diner owner whose only purpose in the film is to flirt with Hank and provide an unnecessary sub-plot that detracts from both the courtroom drama as well as the dysfunctional family chaos.

The movie is beautifully filmed with incredible cinematography and outstanding use of lighting. The score is both stirring and poignant, adding to the more emotional scenes without overwhelming them.

One of the few drawbacks to The Judge is its tendency to become overly dramatic, like when Hank and Joseph finally have it out during a tornado. The Judge is at its best when it offers a quiet or simple human moment, such as Duvall’s Joseph saying goodbye to his wife at her funeral while the mourners are headed to their cars, or when Hank helps Joseph in the bathroom when he is being ill. It’s these moments that will ring true to the audience.

With two compelling leads and a solid supporting cast, The Judge is a crowd-pleasing drama that will have the audience rooting for Hank both in and out of the courtroom.

The Judge is rated R for language including some sexual references.

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Movie Review: The Judge (2014)

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

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.

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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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The Big Picture

• The Judge showcases Robert Downey Jr. & Robert Duvall at their best in a compelling father-son dynamic.
• The film balances emotional rawness with moments of levity, showcasing the actors' range.
• Robert Downey Jr.'s performance in The Judge proves his versatility beyond the MCU.

It's been a decade since The Judge graced theaters amid Robert Downey Jr. 's tenure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and boy is it a drama worth revisiting. We might most often associate Downey with his work as Iron Man, Oppenheimer , and his soon-to-be Broadway debut , but rarely do actors give such career-defining performances that don't occur in their most famous movies. In the case of both Downey and his co-star Robert Duvall ( who wasn't the first choice for the role ), that's especially true of this film. With The Judge making waves again in Netflix's Top 10, it just makes sense to deconstruct this witty courtroom drama and emphasize how it's the dynamic relationship (complicated and dysfunctional as it is) between father and son that makes this story special.

'The Judge' Is Robert Downey Jr. & Robert Duvall at Their Absolute Best

There's little doubt that Downey and Duvall have undertaken plenty of exceptional roles throughout their years on the big screen. Downey has been around since the 1970s and Duvall since the '50s, each amassing an impressive filmography that makes them some of the most sought-after talents in the industry. Every time these guys are on the screen, they knock their characters out of the park. They're interesting and full of plenty of dynamic range to the point that, even if we can't always bring ourselves to root for them, we want to. In the case of David Dobkin 's The Judge , Downey and Duvall are cast perfectly in type . Nick Schenk and Bill Dubuque 's tight script is followed masterfully with intricate character inflections and high-tension dialogue that keeps you glued to the screen every time these two appear together on it. If it sounds like we're simply blowing smoke and giving too much praise to an often-forgotten character drama, let us reassure you that The Judge really is that good .

Downey rocks the fast-talking, quippy performance here. Arguably, he's most famous for this type of dialogue when playing Tony Stark , but unlike his MCU character, Henry "Hank" Palmer isn't a natural hero trying to atone for his mistakes; rather, he's a high-strung, Chicago lawyer with a chip on his shoulder and layers of emotional weight attached that keep him from ever admitting a mistake or putting others above himself. Well, until his dad is put on trial for murder. He's the type of guy you'd want on your side in a fight but would run hard and fast from if he were on your tail. When juxtaposed with Duvall's Judge Joseph Palmer, Hank's father and a small-town Indiana judge for over 40 years, it's easy to see why these two might butt heads . Judge Palmer is self-righteous, unforgiving, and holds strongly to a legal moral compass, yet he's fair, compassionate, and a pillar of his community. All that Hank hates about his father reflects traits he fights within himself.

What more can we say about Duvall and Downey's chemistry other than praise its inherent excellence? There's something to be said about how two performers can highlight each other's strengths and work with them to produce a masterwork. Paul Newman and Robert Redford did this famously in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting (though sadly Redford and Newman didn't make a third picture together). This is exactly what this pair does here with The Judge . It's entertaining, classy, emotionally rich, and dramatically proficient in all the best ways, hinging entirely on the groundbreaking performances of its two leading men. The way these two bounce off one another feels more real and familiar than many of their other roles, and highlights all the horrible truths of familial dysfunction. As they each grieve the death of Judge's wife and Hank's mother , they throw their anger at the other, and the way that Downey and Duvall play it, you'd really think they were estranged father and son.

'The Judge' Is an Emotionally Raw Depiction of a Father-Son Dynamic

Part of what makes The Judge such a compelling and spirited feature is its commitment to working through both sides of the Hank/Judge issue (even his sons call him "Judge" most of the time) and forcing the two of them to address their longstanding rivalry. Now, this isn't some, "let's wait it out of the happy ending," type of cheesy dramatic sob story that makes you want to hug your own father afterward (though you may still feel that impulse). The Judge is ruthless in its personal attacks on each of the main characters , and refuses to give an inch unless it absolutely has to. And boy, when it does, you really feel it.

The way that Hank and Judge Palmer interact is like watching two alpha wolves fight over scraps. Both Hank and the Judge have a strong, commanding presence that naturally brings others in their orbit into direct submission. In the case of the Judge, we see how his oldest and youngest sons, Glen ( Vincent D'Onofrio ) and Dale ( Jeremy Strong ), cower in immediate obedience to their father's whims whenever he erupts. They don't question his authority over their lives, nor do they even think to do so. This runs in stark contrast to Hank, who only ever questions his father's authority, judgment, and love for him as a son . Ironically, Hank (who himself tramples over others) is the only one of the three Palmer boys who was named after a man whom the Judge deeply admired and respected, a local lawyer named Henry Shaw who was the most decent man he'd ever met. The secret truth of The Judge is that Hank is the titular patriarch's favorite son, though he could never bring himself to admit it because of Hank's personal mistakes.

There are a few major moments in this picture that best highlight the weighted struggle between The Judge 's leading men. The night of the tornado warning, Hank and his father blow up at each other following the revelation that Judge Palmer may have committed premeditated murder. But it becomes something much more personal than that . Within seconds, these two are screaming at one another over the Judge's failures as a father, with Duvall's character justifying his decision not to honor Hank's achievements due to his messy past. It's a heartbreaking segment that feels just how it looks, highlighted best by the wind beating mercilessly on the Palmer house and both men screaming at the top of their lungs to be heard . There's not a more dramatic scene in the movie.

'The Judge' Has Key Moments of Levity

Other scenes, such as the courtroom revelation of Judge Palmer's cancer diagnosis (possibly Downey's best moment in the film) and the bathroom mishap, highlight this pair's ability to change the tone at a moment's notice. In the latter, Downey and Duvall's characters go from dealing with a serious issue (and fighting each other over it) to laughing together at the threat of Hank's daughter Lauren ( Emma Tremblay ) opening the door. It's a small touch, but it adds some gaiety to what could otherwise be classified as a "morose" picture (to use the Judge's word). "Speaking to that scene, it starts with incontinence and ends with a knock-knock joke," Downey told Collider in a 2014 interview . "That was our thought for this film. We want it to be entertaining, but we don’t want it to switch gears too often. We want it to mirror how life is, in the midst of this extreme sense of being vulnerable."

Before ‘Oppenheimer,’ Robert Downey Jr. Deserved an Oscar for This Psychological Thriller

The Oscar winner and MCU king does not disappoint.

But that's not the only deep levity that finds its way into this film. To avoid spoiling the ending, let's just say that the final scene between Hank and the Judge is about everything we could ask for after a tumultuous two hours , and it comes at just the right time. With a stellar cast that also includes Vera Farmiga , Billy Bob Thornton , Dax Shepard , and David Krumholtz , The Judge has been, perhaps unfairly, criticized for its under-use of its supporting characters. While it's true that many of these don't get full, well-rounded character arcs, that's not a bad thing.

In this case, that actually works in director David Dobkin's favor as he seamlessly threads this beautifully complex tapestry that is the relationship between Hank Palmer and his father . Frankly, if The Judge spent any more time on any of the other characters who populate Carlinville, Indiana, it wouldn't have enough left over for the meaty tension and release we enjoy between the film's leading men. We need the entirety of this film to really analyze and comprehend the deep wounds these two have inflicted on each other, especially if we want to see any semblance of healing occur at all.

'The Judge' Shows Off All of Robert Downey Jr.'s Strengths

We mentioned before that Robert Downey Jr.'s work in the MCU, Sherlock Holmes , and a plethora of other big-name/big-budget productions is largely why he's a household name today, but we don't need a continuance to deliberate whether his performance as Hank Palmer is RDJ at his best: it just is. His frustrations with his stone of a father come out in a few different ways here, most certainly in their continued bickering and courtroom antics that ultimately culminate in a powerful moment in which Hank confronts his father on the bench. Downey's cadence throughout the film is that of a man on the edge of his emotional wit's end , and yet he never falls. It's beautiful to watch, and although it's gut-wrenching to see father and son hate each other as clearly as they do, it's the hidden love behind the fumes that Downey perfectly captures.

When speaking of his co-star, Robert Duvall — who himself was at first nervous about accepting his role as Judge Parker — noted that Downey is one of the greats. "You don’t feel that big ‘star’ thing with him, even though he's big - he's like a star from the old days," the actor told HuffPost UK in 2014. Downey certainly has the presence of a classical movie star , and his work here in The Judge proves exactly that. The way Downey presents himself in this picture is raw, engaging, and youthful, and though Duvall himself is a master of his craft (he was nominated for an Oscar), there's no doubt that he deserved an Academy Award nomination (if not a win) for his performance here. Thankfully, he nabbed one this year for Oppenheimer , but his work in The Judge remains his most significant.

The Judge is available to watch on Netflix in the U.S.

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• Movie Features

• Robert Downey Jr

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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A brilliant, unscrupulous Chicago defense attorney who excels at getting white-collar criminals off the hook, Hank Palmer (Downey) is preparing to end his marriage and sue for custody of his 7-year-old daughter, Lauren (Emma Tremblay), when he receives news of his mother’s passing. Reluctantly he heads home to Carlinville, the sleepy Indiana town he swore he’d never return to after falling out years ago with his dad, Judge Joseph Palmer (Duvall), an irascible old coot and pillar of moral rectitude who couldn’t be more disapproving of his son the slick big-city operator.

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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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Movie Review: 'The Judge' Starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall

Get the details of Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall's new film.

— -- Starring Robert Downey Jr ., Robert Duvall and Vera Farmiga

Four-and-a-half out of five stars

Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) is a cocky guy. He’s a high-profile defense attorney in Chicago and the type who will “accidentally” urinate on a prosecutor who confronts him in the courthouse bathroom during a trial break. Hank’s got a beautiful wife, a gorgeous house and an adorable daughter, Lauren (Emma Tremblay). But with the exception of Lauren, it’s all window dressing. Hank’s marriage is falling apart and he’s practically estranged from his parents and two brothers.

That quickly changes when his mother dies, and Hank heads back to his childhood home in Indiana. Hank visits the courthouse, where he sits up in the rafters and watches the Honorable Joseph Palmer dish out his brand of tough justice. As you’ve probably figured out, the judge is Hank’s father. What we quickly learn is there’s no love lost between these two. Joseph isn’t just a stern judge, he’s a stern dad. His three sons don’t even call him dad, they just refer to him as “Judge.”

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The morning of the funeral, everyone grabs breakfast at the local diner, where we meet Sam (the always impressive Vera Farmiga), who’s working behind the counter. Wouldn’t you know it, she happens to be Hank’s ex-girlfriend. There’s an instant, though uncomfortable chemistry. In fact, throughout the film, Downey imbues this small-town-boy-turned-city-slicker with a steady undercurrent of uncomfortable, nervous tension while managing to maintain his slick veneer.

The movie shifts into high gear when the judge is accused of intentionally hitting and killing Mark Blackwell with his car the night of his wife’s funeral. More than 20 years earlier, the judge gave Blackwell a light sentence for committing a violent act against his girlfriend, whom Blackwell then killed shortly after getting out of jail.

This is when Duvall takes over the movie. His performance at age 83 -- or any age, really -- is a tour de force of nuance, stoicism and pent-up rage. It’s a sight to behold.

The judge does not want Hank to defend him in court, so he hires a country bumpkin attorney ( Dax Shepard in arguably his best role to date) who’s only ever defended one client. Making the task even more difficult is the special prosecutor brought in for this case: Dwight Dickham, played by Billy Bob Thornton .

Hank and the judge’s combustible relationship plays authentic and relatable on so many levels. You don’t have be a son or a father -- you could be a mother and daughter, sister and brother, aunt, uncle or nephew. Hank’s relationship with Sam is almost as compelling, but for different reasons. There’s a lot of drama here, but it’s the type of conflict that keeps us interested until the very end. Did the judge really murder Blackwell? Will this dysfunctional family ever function? Director and co-writer David Dobkin does a fine job keeping us guessing.

The verdict? "The Judge" is excellent.

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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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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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By Peter Travers

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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 Menendez Brothers Could be Released From Prison. Here’s What to Know.

Prosecutors have recommended that the brothers be resentenced, which could lead to their release from prison.

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By Kate Christobek

Over 35 years ago, Lyle and Erik Menendez — then 21 and 18 years old — walked into the den of their Beverly Hills mansion and fired more than a dozen shotgun rounds at their parents.

Now, after serving decades behind bars as part of a life sentence without the possibility of parole, the Menendez brothers may be getting a chance at freedom.

On Thursday, the Los Angeles County district attorney, George Gascón, recommended that Lyle and Erik Menendez be resentenced, which could ultimately lead to their release.

“I came to a place where I believe that under the law, resentencing is appropriate, and I am going to recommend that to a court tomorrow,” Mr. Gascón said at a news conference.

“I believe that they have paid their debt to society,” he added.

He said he would recommend the brothers be resentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Given the brothers’ age when they committed the murders and their time served, they would be eligible for release under current law, Mr. Gascón said.

Mr. Gascón had announced earlier this month that his office was reviewing the case .

The reconsideration of their life sentences comes as the brothers have been thrust back into the media spotlight thanks to the revelation of new evidence, an army of social media defenders and a recent television series and documentary examining their crime and trials.

Here’s what to know about the Menendez brothers’ case:

What happens next?

Once Mr. Gascón makes his formal recommendation to the court, it will be up for a judge to decide whether resentencing is warranted

If the judge agrees with the prosecutor’s conclusion that they should be resentenced, the brothers will then need to appear before a parole board. The process could take many more weeks and their release is far from guaranteed.

Mr. Gascón’s recommendation is expected to carry some weight with the court.

While acknowledging that the brothers committed “horrible acts” and that “there is no excuse for murder,” Mr. Gascón said on Thursday that he believed that they engaged in “a journey of redemption and a journey of rehabilitation” while incarcerated.

A lawyer for the Menendez brothers recently said their rehabilitation had been “exemplary” and highlighted that they had created programs, counseled and mentored others and pursued higher education behind bars.

The recommendation comes as Mr. Gascón, a Democrat, is trailing a conservative challenger running as an independent in next month’s election for Los Angeles County district attorney. He has said that his office’s interest in the case was not politically motivated and had been in the works for more than a year.

What were they convicted of?

In 1996, the Menendez brothers were found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing their parents, Jose, a music executive, and Mary Louise, a former beauty queen who went by the name Kitty.

It was their second trial. Two years prior, a mistrial was declared after two separate juries (one for each brother) deadlocked over a verdict.

The trials proceeded quite differently.

In the first trial, defense lawyers claimed that the brothers had killed their parents after years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse by their father and feared for their lives. Their mother, they said, knew about the abuse but didn’t stop it.

Interviews with jurors after the mistrial revealed that some of them questioned how serious the abuse was and to what extent it justified their actions.

In the second trial that led to their convictions, where the brothers were tried in front of a single jury, lawyers for the brothers were limited in what evidence and testimony could be presented.

The judge, Stanley M. Weisberg, prohibited their lawyers from using the “ abuse excuse ,” essentially leaving only two options for jurors: an acquittal or a murder conviction. They went with the latter.

What has happened since their conviction?

In the past several years, new evidence has come to light in the Menendez brothers’ case.

Last year, Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo, publicly revealed in the Peacock documentary, “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” that Jose Menendez had sexually assaulted him at the Menendez family home in New Jersey when he was 14.

The journalist Robert Rand, who had written extensively about the brothers in his book “The Menendez Murders,” also brought forward a letter that Erik wrote when he was 17 to his cousin, detailing his father’s sexual abuse.

On Thursday, Mr. Gascón said that he believed the brothers’ molestation claims.

Where does the family stand?

On Thursday, several members of the Menendez family were at the news conference when Mr. Gascón announced his decision.

“Today is a day filled with hope for our family,” said Anamaria Baralt, a cousin of the brothers who supports their release.

Earlier this year, two dozen family members called for their resentencing in a letter submitted to the court, arguing that “time has provided perspective” and that “continued incarceration serves no rehabilitative purpose.”

But not everyone in their family agrees. Milton Andersen, one of Kitty Menendez’s brothers, recently retained a lawyer to oppose the brothers’ release. In 2023, he told The New York Times that Lyle and Erik “do not deserve to walk on the face of this earth after killing my sister and my brother-in-law.”

Why has there been renewed interest in the case?

The Menendez brothers have been the subject of two recent high-profile releases on Netflix.

The first, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” an anthology series created by Ryan Murphy, premiered in September.

Weeks later, Netflix premiered “ The Menendez Brothers ,” a documentary by Alejandro Hartmann featuring exclusive interviews with Lyle and Erik Menendez.

On Thursday, Mr. Gascón said that the recent documentary “brought a tremendous amount of public attention” and requests for information to his office.

Over the past several years, the Menendez brothers have also been backed by a legion of fans on social media who have examined the case in hindsight and expressed sympathy amid the brothers’ claims of sexual assault.

Hank Sanders contributed reporting.

Kate Christobek is a reporter covering the civil and criminal cases against former president Donald J. Trump for The Times. More about Kate Christobek