'The Judge' guilty of diminished drama, recycled characters
We, the critical jury, do hereby find the defendant, David Dobkins' meager legal drama "The Judge," guilty as charged on the following:
Two counts of major actors recycling old characters they've already played to death
One count of squandering the screen presence of the amazing Vera Farmiga
Two counts of shamelessly using a mentally incapacitated character for easy comic relief and quick pathos
One-hundred-forty-one counts of wasting almost two hours and 21 minutes of viewers' lives.
"The Judge" serves us so many interior subplots that it would take a Venn diagram expert to keep them straight.
The screenplay (by Nick Schenk and Bill Dubuque from a story by Dobkin and Schenk) gives us an estranged father and son struggling for common ground, a workaholic dad reeling from an unfaithful wife, a grandpa trying to connect to a granddaughter he has never known, a returning hometown native rekindling a high school crush, a cancer scare and simmering sibling rivalry building to a climax.
These all sound like perfect ingredients for a meaty Midwest family drama, but under Dobkin's delinquent direction (he previously handled "Shanghai Knights," "Wedding Crashers" and "Fred Claus"), "The Judge" is never as humorous as it should be, seldom as compelling as it needs to be, and hardly as memorable as it wants to be.
Early on, we meet Downey's amoral, hotshot Chicago attorney Hank Palmer, urinating on a prosecutor in the restroom (presumably for laughs) and announcing his justification for defending only the guilty. "The innocent can't afford me!" Hank quips.
Then Hank gets clobbered by two life-changing events: His wife commits adultery and his mother dies.
Leaving behind his wife and little daughter, Hank returns to his small Indiana hometown for his mother's funeral. There he shares an awkward reunion with big brother Glen (Vincent D'Onofrio), little brother Dale (Jeremy Strong) - a limited nice guy who shoots and edits family movies on old-fashioned film - and with his gruff, Stoic father Joseph (Robert Duvall), a crusty old judge serving 42 years on the bench.
Hank and the Judge have black-and-blue marks from touching each other with 10-foot poles. Hank likes to win at all costs. The Judge demands justice at all costs.
So, Hank figures on a quick, unpleasant visit before heading back to Chicago. Just as he's about to leave Indiana, Glen calls with shocking news: The Judge has been arrested on charges of the deliberate hit-and-run death of a local lowlife he previously sentenced to a 20-year prison term.
The Judge hires an inexperienced local attorney (Dax Shepard, undercranking both the character's humor and vulnerability) to defend him. Hank decides it's time to do some pro-bono work for his father.
Along the way to defending Dad from a crocodile prosecutor (Billy Bob Thornton, barely breaking a sweat to play another quietly dangerous character), Hank rekindles a romance with his high school sweetie, Samantha, a diner employee played by Farmiga, emanating an elegance and sophistication more suited to the French Riviera than an Indiana river bank.
Both Downey and Duvall pump their scenes with intensity and good intentions, but the snap, crackle and pop of their performances go to rubber under Dobkin's leaden direction and a running time way too long for anyone to stay in this town, even facing murder charges.
Chicago's Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski's images also go inexplicably soft and dreamy with backlighting and postcard quality in a motion picture that screams out for a little true grit.
"Sometimes you have to forgive in order to be forgiven!" a disembodied voice says in the movie's trailer.
I don't recall anyone actually saying that cheesy line in "The Judge." but, unfortunately, it would fit right in.
“The Judge”
★ ½
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D'Onofrio, Billy Bob Thornton, Leighton Meester, Jeremy Strong
Directed by: David Dobkin
Other: A Warner Bros. release. Rated R for language. 140 minutes