The story of The Judge is simple, straightforward: Henry (Hank) Palmer (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a hotshot, ruthless Chicago lawyer. He gets a call that his mother has died and he returns home to Carlinville, Indiana. He hasn’t been there in years because he and his father Joseph, (Robert Duvall), a judge, don’t communicate at all.

Photo: © 2014, Warner Bros. Pictures/Village Roadshow Pictures
When we meet the Palmer family, Hank is about to divorce his wife and try to get custody of his little daughter Lauren (Emma Tramblay). It’s clear from the outset his negative feelings about his wife don’t extend to Lauren. Hank has two brothers in Indiana, Glen (Vincent D’Onofrio) and Dale (Jeremy Strong) and he also has a lot of memories there.
The night of his mother’s funeral, a young man is fatally run over by a car and circumstances lead the police to arrest Judge Palmer for murder. The prosecutor, Dwight Dickham (Billy Bob Thornton) goes after him full speed and, serving as defense attorney (“I’m a bit light on my pro bono quota this year.”) is son Henry.
So, you see, The Judge is a mixture of family drama and legal procedural. It is the talent and chemistry of the two Roberts in the lead roles that make it work. In short, what could have been one misery piled on another, turns out to be entertaining. Very entertaining.
There’s a lot of heated discussion between Palmers père et fils, about defense strategy and some vivid scenes of a nervous lawyer regularly vomiting before trial and of the ravages chemotherapy can have on the body.
Despite all their differences, father and son are the same in many ways — intelligence being the primary one — their scenes together are riveting.
The subplot involves Hank’s old love (Vera Farmiga) and her daughter (Leighton Meester). It’s heaps less interesting than the main story. Dax Shephard and Ken Howard have nice turns as an inept attorney and a judge, respectively.
In the end, after the verdict is rendered, the movie gets a bit soft (no surprise in that) but the performances are first-rate throughout. Thornton’s prosecutor is tough, but stops way before any moustache twirling villainy. Duvall and Downey play against each other perfectly, always interesting a good to watch.
The trailer for The Judge:
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