The Judge

The Judge (R) It has to be tough to share the box office take with “Gone Girl,” especially if you do not have much to offer the audience in the way of excitement. Director David Dobkin does an adequate job with the fine dramatic cast but must work around a script dripping with sentimentalism, right down to old home movies taken with an iconic Super 8 camera. His area of expertise and strong suit is comedy (“Wedding Crashers” and “Fred Claus)” and humor turns up lacking in this drama’s subject matter. Most of the action proves to be a seesaw of boredom and tear-jerking scenes of family dysfunction. The somewhat original premise stands on shaky ground with too many side plots to worry, or care, about running in the background.

Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.), a high-power, big city defense lawyer with small town Indiana roots, now rules in the courtrooms of Chicago. Estranged from his father, Joseph (Robert Duvall), a judge in his hometown, Hank only returns home to go to his mother’s funeral. It is there we meet the rest of the family, brothers Glen (Vincent D’Onofrio) and Dale (Jeremy Strong), and one ex-girlfriend, Samantha (Vera Farmiga), and all of the bad memories come rushing back.

Family dynamics go downhill as Joseph, the aging judge, gets into a serious legal jam and it appears that his only chance of straightening things out lies in the legal expertise of his son, Hank. The scripted chemistry between the two characters does not allow for much cooperation in working up a viable defense. Dad blocks son at every junction of the case. The courtroom scenes prove to be some of the best the movie has to offer. The leads, Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duval, who finally get their chance to emote, pull out all of the stops and demonstrate why they are award-winning actors.

An entertaining drama, but one that that fails to completely capture the hearts of the audience; this film turns out to be a bit of a drag despite the best efforts of its strong cast.