Movie awards season is just about here, so we’ll be getting a steady diet of the films movie studios hope to blow everyone away with. The Judge is clearly one such film, with a brilliant cast of oscar winners and nominees. Unfortunately this movie isn’t as good as they wanted it to be.
Starring Robert Downey Jr and Robert Duvall, it is the story of big league, big city lawyer Hank (Downey) called home to defend his father, longtime small city judge Joseph (Duvall) from a murder charge. The two were never close, in fact are downright spiteful to each other for a good portion of the movie. Hank feels his father was too hard on him growing up, always keeping him at a distance even while keeping his other kids close. You learn as the movie goes along what kept the two separate, and each’s reasonings for keeping things as the status-quo. Unfortunately the movie tries too hard, and keeps trying to outdo itself with more and more revelations. Though it does feature tremendous acting by Downey and Duvall, as well as supporting parts by Billy Bob Thornton and Vincent D’Onofrio, the brilliant portrayals can’t save the script. It’s not a bad movie, in fact I think it is mostly good overall, but it is certainly not the great film that I think they were hoping for. This one is worth seeing for the acting alone, but ultimately forgettable.
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