The Judge [2014]: Great Content That Failed to Make a Mark

Cast:  Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga

Directed by: David Dobkin
The Judge is the story of a son coming back home after 20 years to attend his mother’s funeral and developing the lost bond he had with his father, while they have a legal situation in hand.  However, this is the head plot of the film, it didn't really unravel properly.
This film had a veteran legend [Robert Duvall], a popular star [Robert Downey Jr.], a cameo by an accomplished actor [Billy Bob Thornton] and lots of failed opportunities. A good film maker and screen writer would have pulled out a great father-son tale about reunion in relationships and the wisdom surrounding it. However it became a victim of bad writing with clichéd dialogues and unnecessary plot waywardness.
Robert Downey Jr. seriously needs to come out of that Tony Stark attitude if he really wants people to consider him an actor first. However it isn't completely his fault here, he did try to suppress the flamboyant Tony Stark in him but the character was written like that, which needed him to be a bit flamboyant.
Robert Duvall did a good enough job as Judge Palmer and received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
About the family; I could see no real chemistry between Robert Duvall [The Judge] and his three sons, however, the brothers looked really good together. Every time, the trio of the palmer brothers was together, we had a good enough scene.
The courtroom scenes were some of the best scenes; it was an opportunity where they could really score by adding a few more hearings and cutting out the unnecessary plots about his ex and his alleged daughter. Anyway, there were so many sub-plots that the impact of the best scenes was minimal.
The judge had great substance which was handled by amateurs.
Movie Geek's Rating: ★★½ -------------------------
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