The Judge

To kick off our two-film Saturday, we decided to check out what 'The Judge' had to offer. Personally, I usually find this type of film dreary and drawn out (see August: Osage County), but I was willing to give it a shot based on what I had heard.

'The Judge' is an American drama starring Robert Downey Jr. (The Iron Man films) and Robert Duvall (Gone in 60 Seconds, Jack Reacher, the list goes on!). It tells the story of Hank Palmer (Downey Jr.), a lawyer who is considered to be one of the best in Chicago, who must leave it all behind and travel back to Indiana to attend his mother’s funeral. Once there, he meets up with his two brothers, Dale (Jeremy Strong) and Glen (Vincent D'Onofrio), his high school sweetheart Samantha (Vera Farmiga), and finally his dad (Duvall). After the funeral, as Hanks stay is coming to an end, he stumbles upon his dad's old car. It seems to have been in some kind of accident and even worse there is blood in the grill. Hank decides to stick around to see what will come of this situation. With tensions already high amongst this family due to events of the past (one in particular but I won't spoil it); this new event blows the family apart. As the story unravels you learn more about why this family is so tense, while Hank learns that his dad needs him for more than just legal support.  

 

Unexpectedly, I rather enjoyed this film. The story starts off quite shaky and I wasn't quite sure that I was going to be able to sit through the whole thing. However, as the story unravelled, I found myself hooked and truly caring about what was going to the happen to Hanks father. The film goes to depths I never could have imagined from seeing the trailer. Finally we have a believable family situation with back stories that support the angst you see in the present day. The acting was of course flawless with the two main characters stealing the show. Also, it was lovely to see a great performance from Emma Tremblay who plays Hank's daughter. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing and even shed a tear or two here and there.

 

8.5/10 for 'The Judge', placing it at number 11 in My 2014 League Table, just outside the current top 10.