by Peter O'Connell
The Judge. 141 mins. Released: Oct. 10, 2014. Rated: R for language, including some sexual references.
Two acting icons of different generations—Robert Downey, Jr., and Robert Duvall—come together in this film to play legal icons of different generations. Downey is Hank Palmer, a hotshot big city defense attorney, and Duvall is his father, a well-respected judge in an Indiana town.
Hank returns—which he has done only rarely-- to that home town for his mother's funeral and becomes
embroiled once again in longstanding difficulties with his father, whose faculties are starting to fade. Those difficulties, however, pale compared to the ones that emerge when Hank has to defend his father against the charge of having killed a man.
Having a plot with these two dramatic strands—legal and familial—makes for a compelling concept, but things start to drag as director David Dobkin takes his time weaving the strands together. Downey and Duvall are always enjoyable to watch, no matter what they're in, but maybe it's time for Downey to play someone besides a wiseass and for Duvall to play someone besides a grizzled curmudgeon. Yet the two truly throw off sparks in some of their scenes together, particularly one in which the son has to help his woozy father in the bathroom while trying to keep a young girl out.
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