The Judge
starring Robert Downey, Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D’Onofrio and Billy Bob Thornton,
screenplay by Nick Schenk and Bill Dubuque
directed by David Dobkin
Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
The Judge is a classic tale of the rebellious son versus the stern, authoritative, controlling father. Oh, boy, fathers and sons. Robert Downey, Jr. plays Hank Palmer, a very successful lawyer in Chicago. Hank’s mother dies and he has to return to his rural, Bible belt Indiana hometown for the funeral. That’s when we learn his backstory. Hank hates his father, a local magistrate, and has never returned home since leaving for university in 1989. But his mother’s death makes his homecoming unavoidable. Naturally there is a confrontation with his father Joseph (Robert Duvall), still a working judge. Hank’s older brother Glen (Vincent D’Onofrio) is a local businessman who lost a real chance at a Major League baseball career when his hand was injured in a high school car crash caused by Hank driving stoned. There is no recrimination between the brothers, but there certainly is between father and son. We eventually learn that Judge Palmer sent his own son to juvenile detention for that escapade.
Hank meets his family for the first time in years, plus old girlfriends - how terrible!! - and sees that the old town hasn’t changed so much. Believe me, I know about homecomings and ex-girlfriends.
The night after the funeral Judge Palmer is involved in a traffic incident in which a bicyclist is killed. The victim happens to be a man the judge sent to prison for 20 years for manslaughter who was recently paroled, so people immediately suspect it was a pre-meditated revenge murder, and the judge is charged with homicide. Hank, who is desperate to escape and return to Chicago (where he has his own troubles waiting) stays on to defend his Dad.
To make the story more interesting, Judge Palmer has been hiding the fact from his family that he is dying of cancer and has been undergoing chemotherapy for many months. The side effects of the chemo might explain bouts of memory loss and, unfortunately, will call into question all of his judicial rulings from the time his treatment began. It’s a can of worms.
Through the course of the trial Joseph and Hank reach a modicum of reconciliation. There are some powerful scenes of Hank helping his father in the bathroom while he suffers more effects of the chemo. I don’t want to describe it, but they’re the sorts of things doctors and nurses are familiar with - bodily functions and stuff.
Billy Bob Thornton beautifully plays the prosecutor Dwight Dickham. He’s evil.