The Judge (Robert Downey, Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton) — It is hard to express how incredibly noteworthy the career of Robert Duvall has been. While not often mentioned in the pantheon of great actors with DeNiro, Pacino, Hoffman, Olivier, Newman, Tracy, Bogart, and Brando, Duvall’s career has been spectacular. With six Oscar nominations and one win (for Tender Mercies), he is still crafting magnificent work at age 83. I love to tell the story about how I had dinner with Robert Duvall eight years ago in Las Vegas. That is to say, we both had dinner one table away from each other in the Bellagio in Las Vegas. I noticed; he didn’t.
Duvall plays John Palmer, The Judge, a hard-nosed, small-town adjudicator of justice in a backwater town in rural Indiana. He has lived there all his life, knows the people, knows the culture, and knows his own mounting limitations. When his wife of 50 years dies, he is shaken to the core. But the story is not told through his eyes. Rather, the central character is his middle son, Hank (Robert Downey, Jr.), a big-time Chicago lawyer who is cocky, brazen, and perhaps corrupt. His clients are of questionable moral character but, at his heart, Hank is not. He is a good father, a distant husband, and a pre-occupied professional. We learn everything we need to know about him in the first 10 minutes of the film in a brilliant bit of scriptwriting.
Hank’s mother’s death rocks him, too, and he heads back home to Indiana from where he has been absent for years. It doesn’t take long to see the tension between father and son. There is admiration, too, but it lies well below the surface. We meet Hank’s brothers, one who is mentally challenged and one who seems like a loving lug. We also meet the townspeople, most notably one of Hank’s old flames, Samantha (Vera Farmiga) . But Hank and John are estranged; seriously estranged. As we learn the back-story, the characters get richer and the story develops. The Judge’s memory is deteriorating and his personality is growing harder edged. As the family deals with the death of its matriarch, the boys go out drinking and dad heads out, too, stopping at a convenience store for some eggs. Next thing we know, it is morning. Dad’s car is damaged but he doesn’t remember a thing.
Shortly thereafter, he is arrested for murder. The victim: a man to whom the judge gave one of his few light sentences. Despite having a top-notch lawyer in the family, The Judge hires a well-meaning, inept local attorney. That experiment doesn’t last long, and Hank takes over. No one really wants to The Judge convicted except the prosecutor (Bill Bob Thornton is the only miscasting in the movie), who comes to the little town to settle an old score with Hank.
The film is less court-room drama than family character study. It explores family dynamics, grudges, old scores, missed opportunities, and regretful mistakes. It encompasses the frailty of age, unadulterated pride, and stubbornness.
The Judge has superb acting and a marvelous script. But the plot is predictable and the story way too trite (will Hank and Sam get together? Will dad die? Is The Judge guilty?). It is far from a perfect film. But it is a wonderful morality play and family drama with an outstanding cast of Oscar-nominated actors (Duvall is a shoe-in for another nomination). It is a film well worth seeing and enjoying.