THE JUDGE: Performances Take A Regular Drama To Another Level

I’ve never really understood the law. That, however, never stopped me from drooping inquisitively over courtroom dramas. With my rediscovery of A Few Good Men on TV a few months ago, this sub-genre managed to spark some affection in my geeky wonderland of a mind. With two acting powerhouses to anchor its shaky narrative, The Judge is a pleasant break for both Robert Downey Jr and his fans. And it is a lot better than some cantankerous complain-boxes might have led you to believe. It is a film of uncontaminated smiles paired gently with a sincere instances of quivering sentimentality.

The acting is its soul

The film works primarily because of the acting. Robert Duvall is perfectly cast. His vicious verbal attacks and his subtle deterioration as a man drowning in a pool of mourning make up for a fantastically rounded character of Judge Palmer. The reason I mentioned Downey Jr first is because majority of the people in had come to watch due to his face on the poster. Some had no idea that it’s a drama and not one of his Kiss Kiss Bang Bang endeavors.

The Iron Man nails his double-edged character Hank Palmer, who, as Vera Farmiga‘s character affectionately words, can spontaneously be both selfish and selfless. He is the son of Judge Palmer who returns to his hometown after his mother passes away. His dysfunctional familial relationships notwithstanding, Hank must, for once, take a stand do what is right instead of slamming the door in the face of his responsibilities, irrational as they may appear.

Vincent D’Onofrio and Jeremy Strong fill in as Hank’s brothers: Glen and Dale, with the latter lingering through the film’s fractured mushiness as a memorable character who is fragile beyond repair; he loves filming (almost everything) on his Super 8 camera.

The Judge a film ultimately about the messy frailness of a father-son relationship plagued, in part, by law. It is very clear that the film would not have thrived without extracting its largest strength from its two central performances. Robert Downey Jr nails the strained emotional pauses of his scripted dialogue with dynamic grace. And obviously, he is spot on in the funny moments, providing an insight into the incompleteness of his character’s ideas of fulfillment than just giving just comic relief.

Grace under pressure

Thanks to the TV series Fargo, I will perpetually be terrified of Billy Bob Thornton, who is impeccable here as Dwight Dickham: the lawyer who goes against Hank when Judge Palmer is accused of murder. Now it’s up to Hank to be his own self: the hotshot city lawyer with a crackerjack vocabulary and a knack for keeping the guilty out of jail. “The innocent can’t afford me,” he remarks. The Judge derives all of its dramatic tension from the fact that the central players in the field of its story are often asked to do something that is unlikely of them. It works.

There is only one slight shortcoming: the film is a little too long. Some scenes with impassioned potential fall on their faces because they are stretched. There was some nervous shifting in the theater in the more silent moments. But the humor is piped in just at the essential places, making comfortable bedfellows with the serious pathos in its hushed overtones. Flawed beings wander the frames of the narrative in search of the glue to hold together what’s left of their family.The proceedings are perfectly set to Thomas Newman‘s twinkly score and superbly shot by Janusz Kaminski.Hank Palmer has a hole inside that couldn’t be filled with an exceedingly high reputation, riches and a beautiful daughter. No points for guessing, that Duvall‘s absence from the years of his son’s life, as well as a pivotal turning point brought about an accident in the past had put the final dent in the already crumbling ramshackle of the Palmer family.

The screenplay (Nick Schenk, Bill Dubuque) takes its time to let us in on these past details at a leisurely but an assured way. The best example of this is Vera Farmiga‘s Samantha, who is Hank’s old flame. She has one laughably important keepsake from him that effectively renders the memory of a scene early on in the film painful.

Conclusion

The Judge is far from from perfect, but it has its moments and rescues itself from falling into a ditch of mediocrity with the help of some terrific performances, and a few gooey emotional hot-springs in the right places. I’ll be damned if watching this doesn’t make you want to add Bon Iver’s song “Holoscene” to your playlist.

What did you think of the film? Fellow Downey Jr fans, let’s get a debate going here!