Flick Chick Review ‘The Judge’

Flick Chick here once again in the pursuit of truth, justice and keeping you from spending your hard earned money on movies that don’t make the grade! Over the weekend I grabbed my briefcase, put on my power-suit and went to the Bangor Mall Cinemas to see ‘The Judge’.

This movie runs 2 hours and 20 minutes, is a drama and is rated R for language including some sexual references. The film stars: Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D'Onofrio

Summary:

This is the story of defense lawyer Hank Palmer who upon the death of his mother returns to his small town roots for the first time for many years. His father, a town judge for more than forty years, carries a grudge for Hank that stilts their relationship almost completely. He has two brothers as well, Glen, whose MBL dreams were stolen by a mysterious car crash and Dale who is mentally handicapped. While there for the funeral things are tense to say the very least but before Hank can make another clean getaway his Father is accused of murder leaving Hank faced with the challenge of trying to defend a man who seemingly hates him.

Review:

Needless to say a cast ensemble like this one makes you walk into the movie certain that if the script is well written this film can’t help but be great.  Given that this is the second film in two weeks centered around and estranged family and a funeral suffice to say the plot must be relatable to many.  This movie carries on familiar themes of running from your home town to reinvent yourself, disappointing parents, the scorn of the siblings that stuck it out and stayed in town to support the family and so on.  The screen writer does add in some interesting plot twists throughout that make this film somewhat unique. And although the Judge (Robert Duvall) is a real piece of work the story works hard to make you respect him even if you don’t like him. Over all this was a very well acted poignant story with likable characters and a good resolution. I could have been a little shorter to my mind but the director was a fan of visual imagery to drive home a point. So on a scale of 1-10, I can only give ‘The Judge’ an 8.
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