How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 28 September 2014
This article is a review of THE JUDGE.
Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2014. (For more information, click here.)
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“This family is a f***king Picasso painting,” Henry “Hank” Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) to brother Glenn (Vincent D’Onofrio)
Undoubtedly THE JUDGE is the Robert Downey Jr. show. Given the choicest lines, playing to his entertaining glib faux-misanthropic thinly veiled heart-of-gold strengths, the rest of the classy cast are unfortunately relegated to wallow in TV-movie-of-the-week drivel. Robert Duvall was Tom Hagen in THE GODFATHER, Frank Hackett in NETWORK and Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in APOCALYPSE NOW (to name a few); how has he been allowed to be reduced to literally sh*tting himself in a scene here? Note: Duvall’s last legal eagle drama had him eviscerating the screen in A CIVIL ACTION.
Undoubtedly THE JUDGE is the Robert Downey Jr. show. Given the choicest lines, playing to his entertaining glib faux-misanthropic thinly veiled heart-of-gold strengths, the rest of the classy cast are unfortunately relegated to wallow in TV-movie-of-the-week drivel. Robert Duvall was Tom Hagen in THE GODFATHER, Frank Hackett in NETWORK and Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in APOCALYPSE NOW (to name a few); how has he been allowed to be reduced to literally sh*tting himself in a scene here? Note: Duvall’s last legal eagle drama had him eviscerating the screen in A CIVIL ACTION.
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Groan-some homespun wholesomeness is what greets the audience: Spectacles resting on a newspaper, baseball mitt and 16mm camera, dappled in syrupy lighting. Alarm bells went off immediately. Cut to defence lawyer Hank literally p*ssing on the prosecution (though it feels like the urination is a premonition for what is about to happen to the audience). “Innocent people can’t afford me,” are typical of the Iron Man-isms we’ve come to expect and enjoy. Mid-defence of a C.E.O. douche bag, Hank is left a message that his mother has passed away. From big city Chicago to backwater Carlinville, Indiana, there are no prizes whatsoever for guessing if any life lessons are coming for the likeable lead. Of course, the schooling is excruciating in its obviousness and sentimentality. Twee music score is the icing.
Director David Dobkin (THE CHANGE-UP, FRED CLAUS) is completely out of his element; initially attempting panache with self-conscious shots:
- The camera pulls out from a Range Rover into the sky, and
- An overhead door angle as Hank enters a church.
And then forgetting to offer such weak stylistics for the rest of the runtime.
GROSSE POINTE BLANK-like return after lengthy absence, sans brains and verve, have various skeletons raise their head to uninteresting effect. The narrative tries to veer away from expectation; and instead of offering up surprises, gives off the whiff of randomness. An incest subplot rears its head and goes nowhere?!
If you’re watching THE JUDGE on a plane, and there is still an anachronistic sick bag nearby, have it to hand. You’ll definitely need it for the denouement, where the father-son issues have their climactic airing in a courtroom. Rom-com public vocalising of eventual adoration have nothing on this level of inept emotional manipulation.
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