Theater Whore: The Judge

The Judge 5/10

Oh, The Judge could've been so damned good. I'm talking about everyone talking about it, award talk, and seeing it a few times in the theater. But there was something missing from this. I have a few ideas of what they could have done to make this better. This stars Robert Downey Jr. as Hank Palmer. He is a good lawyer but having hard times with his personal life. He and his wife are in the process of divorcing and he finds out that his mother just died. By the way, the only reason any family gets together is because a parent dies.

Hank heads to his old town that he hasn't been to in twenty years to attend the funeral. He sees his brothers Glen played by Vincent D'Onofrio and Dale played by Jeremy Strong. He also reluctantly talks to his father Judge Joseph Palmer played by Robert Duvall. You can tell immediately that they do not get along and haven't spoken in all the twenty years Hank was gone.

After a fight Hank decides to head back home and on the plane ride back is told by his brother that their father is talking to police after it turns out that he hit and killed a man that he earlier tried in court with his car. Hank heads back home to try and help out.

In side stories we have a woman that Hank used to date in school and may or may not be the father of her slutty daughter. There are no strong female leads in this movie so don't look for them. After a lot of back and forth Hank as well as another lawyer that has no experience and is only here for some sort of humor that wasn't needed played by Dax Shepard.

They go up against the prosecuting lawyer played by Billy Bob Thorton. I laughed because I love in movies when there is a small town lawyer that is feared. They go to trial and it pretty much goes exactly as you'd expect.

This movie had the chance to be good. It needed to be heavier. It would float over to humor or lighthearted when it shouldn't have. The actors in this are good but they are making it good in spite of the writing and directing. 

I checked out who directed this and his name is David Dobkin and he has done mostly comedies like Shanghai Knights, Wedding Crashers, and The Change-Up. He wrote, directed, and produced this which is ambitious but usually not good. And this movie is long. Its over two hours when it could have been a clean 100 minute drama.

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