Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Robert Duvall, Billy Bob Thornton, Vera Farmiga
Director: David Dobkin
Genre: Drama
Running time: 141 minutes
Now showing: Cinema Magic, Metroplex Mall, Naalya and Century Cinemax, Acacia Mall, Kisementi
“My father is a lot of unpleasant things, but murderer is not one of them.” This line alone from the trailer gives you a glimpse into the drama that is The Judge. Robert Downey Jr says it with that self-assuredness Tony Stark (Iron Man) fans have become all too familiar with, so if you fall in that category, at least there is one character you will enjoy.
Downey plays Hank Palmer, a cocky lawyer with no qualms about defending the guilty. In fact, he does not seem to have any qualms at all until he gets a call informing him that his mother has passed on. The call means he has to go back to a town he is not too excited about and that he also has to deal with his father, with whom he has a strained relationship.
Back in his hometown, he pays his last respects to his mother but before he can leave, his father is arrested and accused of killing someone. The complicated bit about the case is that there is a history between Hank’s father, who is the town judge, and the guy who died so the case does not favour him. Despite their strained relationship, Hank takes on the case as his father’s defence lawyer. Cue family drama upon family drama.
With a cast like the one we have here –Downey, Duvall, Thornton, it would take a really bad script or director to foil it up. Thankfully, that is not the case here. Although it has received mainly mixed reviews, the negative reviews mainly point to the clichéd storyline. Sure, some things are clichéd but that’s the thing about family drama; it is usually the same and only changes from one family to another. That does not throw a shadow over how the movie makes up for it with good acting and entertainment.
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