Duvall and Downey, Jr., Deliver Rage and Wit in The Judge

Navigating a script packed with emotional highs and lows and familial dilemmas, Robert Duvall (Crazy Heart, Tender Mercies) and Robert Downey, Jr. (Iron Man series, Sherlock Holmes), provide nuanced, powerful performances in The Judge. From the moment they appear on screen together, they expertly spar as estranged father and son, trading cruel barbs in low-pitched strikes.

Hank Palmer (Downey, Jr.), a haughty, successful Chicago lawyer, returns to his small, Indiana hometown when his mother dies to find much unchanged. His mentally challenged brother, Dale (Jeremy Strong: Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln), welcomes him with open arms, and older brother, Glen (Vincent D'Onofrio: Escape Plan, TV's Law and Order: Criminal Intent), clearly holds a grudge from a past transgression. The past unfolds in bits and pieces and director David Dobkin, known for his comedies, Wedding Crashers and Shanghai Knights, inserts the bittersweet tales and the characters' verbal jabs in the right places, so that one laughs and cries at the same time. He has much to orchestrate in the jumble of story lines, but does so admirably.

As the litany of secrets leaks out-from keeping cancer treatment hidden, to the details of an old car accident that has affected everyone in the family, along with Glen's unrealized future as a baseball star, and a question of paternity with Hank's ex-girlfriend's daughter-Hank becomes less flippant and more contrite. (Add to that a recovering alcoholic's struggles and a tornado, and the stage is more than set for confusing trauma.) "The Judge," Duvall's Joseph Palmer, goes through a transition, too, when he is accused of running over the town's unrepentant murderer. He doesn't remember the incident, and his attacks become more brittle. Duvall delicately shifts a father's anger into quiet tears over the loss of his wife, yet retains his stoicism for the public.

Just as skillfully, Downey, Jr., as Hank, disperses wit in hostile bites and later empathizes when he witnesses his father's struggles. Several scenes between Hank and his father are the stuff raw, heartfelt film exchanges are made of, and The Judge should become memorable for the two actors' work together.

The supporting actors, along with Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, TV's Bates Motel) as Hank's high-school girlfriend, are stellar in their roles. Strong plays Dale as a camera-wielding, guileless, and loving reflection of what the family could be and isn't, and D'Onofrio makes Glen a complex character, in spite of his blunt, terse responses to Hank. Farmiga is sensual as Sam, teasing Hank like a small-town girl, but holding back secrets at the same time. Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade, TV's Fargo) is also a strong presence as Dwight Dickham, a self-righteous prosecutor pitted against Hank, who takes his father's case. Thornton channels Dickham's rage into his controlled cross-examination. Dax Shepard (Hit and Run, TV's Parenthood) plays a hapless, local lawyer under Hank's scrutiny and has enough self-effacing incompetence to be affable. A sweet Emma Tremblay (The Giver, Elysium) cuddles up to Hank to lend another aspect to his character as loving father.

The Judge is at least 10 minutes too long, especially when a tidy ending could occur before the few scenes that play out afterwards, but the actors juggle the lengthy unveiling of their characters with style and grit. In the end, they triumph over an unwieldy script and save the film from becoming too melodramatic.

Rated R

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