The Judge (2014)

Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on October 11, 2014 @ tonymacklin.net.

Writing matters. It really does.

It becomes painfully apparent in The Judge, which has a weak, plodding screenplay that dulls its actors and wastes its possibilities. The Judge is not the film it could be and should be. It's Small Claims Court. Very small. And very contrived.

The Judge is the faltering story of a slick, big-city lawyer Hank Palmer (Robert Downey, Jr.), who returns to a small town in Indiana (fictitious Carlinville, Indiana). Boy, is it fictitious.

There he has to defend his curmudgeonly father (Robert Duvall), a judge who is accused of murder.

Father and son are estranged, and Hank's return dredges up the past, including his relationship with Samantha (Vera Farmiga). Family issues percolate.

The initial draft of The Judge was written by Nick Schenk, who used some personal experience - people he witnessed in a bar and at work - to write a serviceable screenplay for Gran Torino (2008), which played to the strengths of Clint Eastwood.

After Schenk's draft of The Judge, the powers-that-be brought in a former corporate headhunter Bill Dubuque to do his damage with a rewrite. The Judge is Dubuque's first screen credit.

Two amateurish writers combine to bring accomplished professional actors down to their level.

They even have Hank refer to Atticus Finch. They wanted to make a To Kill a Mockingbird. Instead they made, To Kill an Annoying Parrot.

The Judge is set in Indiana.

Schenk has said, "I'm from Minnesota which helped give the script that Midwestern tone."

The only problem with that is that The Judge was shot in Shelburne Falls, Denham, Sunderland, and other locations - in Massachusetts.

I guess that Midwestern tone can be easily located. We all know that Indiana and Massachusetts are so alike - politically, socially, and especially topically. That lush foliage and hillsides in the film are just like the flatlands of Indiana.

First-rate actors can't transcend a pedestrian screenplay. They have their limits.

Duvall and Downey, Jr., have their moments, as do Farmiga and Downey, but they are buried in coyness. Duvall is Duvall. Downey tends to rely on a self-satisfied expression. It's a long way from Chaplin.

Billy Bob Thornton as the prosecutor and Ken Howard as a judge make appearances.

The director David Dobkin is more like his writers than like his actors. Dobkin's past directorial forays, such as Wedding Crashers (2005) and Shanghai Knights (2003) do not prepare him for the subtlety and nuance that his gifted cast in The Judge could provide under a more sensitive director.

Like writers, details do matter.

I think the next Dobkin/Downey, Jr. project is set in the glaciers of Kansas.