The Robert Downey Jr. Film Guide: The Judge (2014)

A hotshot defense attorney returns to his hometown in Indiana for his mother’s funeral and must defend his father, a well-respected judge, who is accused of murder.

Hank Palmer, the lawyer and main character.

Everybody wants Atticus Finch until there’s a dead hooker in a hot tub.

In a failing marriage, he hooks up with a townie and reunites with his high school sweetheart (Vera Farmiga).

Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Leighton Meester, Vincent D’Onofrio, Dax Shepard, Billy Bob Thornton

Robert Duvall in Lucky You and The Gingerbread Man

This movie is entertaining and has great wit and great laughs from the beginning up until the end, and insomuch as it’s a drama, I always say a drama has to be 30% comedy and a comedy has to be 30% drama ... Over the course of lead-up to releasing The Judge, the audiences were telling us that yes, the evocative, dramatic aspects of the film were primarily what was holding their attention, however as our test scores were going higher and higher, much of that was due to the giddy dispersion of moments of laughter and release, situations and characters who behaved in a funny manner. And so Team Downey and the studio decided it was natural to lean into that. At its core, you could call it a drama. It’s a surprisingly humorous movie. In other words, it’s not a bleak nihilistic downer. It’s quite uplifting ... Emotionally, [my character] is extremely congested ... The Judge is a departure of sorts in that Hank starts off in a way audiences might compare to other roles, but there’s a significant change and an eventual humility ... This has been by a long shot the most cerebral thing I’ve ever had to do, because I’m not out there throwing kicks. It’s all between my ears ... David Dobkin spent a lot of time and effort creating an environment where we could do something difficult and enjoy the process. We had so many laughs during the time when you'd think we'd have been somber and doing our deep preparation. It helps that we also had [Robert Duvall], he loves to tell stories and Dax is funny as heck ... Fortunately, this isn’t a courtroom drama, and it’s more of a destination for the showdown between Hank and The Judge. By the time we were in court, we largely stuck to the script, but it was so well-written, a lot of it feels improvised ... Director David Dobkin basically had [Robert Duvall] run a family improvisation. He turned the process over to the patriarch of the family and the sons, and then said, great that's how I want it to feel on set ... [Robert Duvall] surprised me. He both has the stature of one of our great American actors, but he also is someone who’s just interested in kind of chatting, and he likes the things that he likes. But about other things like working, it’s like talking to my dad about God. You just don’t do it because he is in his own way very deeply spiritual and what protects that is he doesn’t talk about it. He connected to it through his life experiences and his work, and Duvall is that way with his work. I realized quickly he didn’t want to do a lot of actor talk. He wants to jump in and let it happen. I often felt I was there to assist him as he led the scene in the right way because I trusted him. But I also know there’s a cooperative aspect that never gets better than just pretty good unless there’s real cooperation ... As of now, I would rather not do a movie without Vincent D’Onofrio, ever again. He literally is like the big brother I never had, and he is just so talented. He is nothing like his character, Glen. There is not a moment of Vincent D’Onofrio in that character. There are aspects of him in it but he is a masterful guy. So honestly almost every project that I think about moving forward I think, what’s Vince going to do in it?

Present day, fictional small town Carlinville, Indiana

Released in theaters on 10 Oct 2014. On DVD in region 1, 2 and 4 and on Blu-ray.

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The Judge: The Abridged Script

Brazil: O Juiz (The Judge)
Denmark: Dommeren (The Judge)
France: Le Juge (The Judge)
Germany: Der Richter - Recht oder Ehre (The Judge: Right or Honor)
Lithuania: Teisejas (The Judge)
Spain: El Juez (The Judge)

47% Fresh | 174 reviews

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Think of it this way, as a collision between Robert Duvall and Robert Downey Jr thrown together in a scenario in which they must pretend to be father and son. In one corner, we have the irresistible force that is Downey, the mile-a-minute speech, the glib facade barely concealing a vulnerable core. And in the other, we have Duvall, the father no one wants, at least no son, an implacable and belligerent know-it-all who has the unforgivable habit of often being right. Can they be themselves on screen, those selves we’ve come to know in detail, and yet seem like members of the same family?

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: This vivid and volatile core is often undercut by a weakness for middle-of-the-road sentiment and a desire to be all things to all people ... Still, however unwieldy the final result, Dobkin and company deserve credit for helping Duvall and Downey create vibrant, dramatic characters that involve the performers in rousing, stem-winder ways.

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: [Downey] could have easily just phoned this one in, relying on his whip-smart banter (or “verbal vomit” as Vera Farmiga’s romantically inclined character Samantha calls it). But it’s clear that Downey wants to remind us that he’s got more going for him as an actor than the heroic antics of his Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes blockbuster franchises.

1. It’s a throwback to a type of movie that really doesn’t exist in modern Hollywood.
2. These days it’s rare and refreshing to see Robert Downey Jr do literally anything that isn’t a Marvel movie.

Good performances all around in this drama, which has its moments that unfortunately don't add up to much.