Robert Duvall has seen a noticeable drop in decent roles
since the glory days of the seventies and eighties but The Judge is there to remind everyone just how remarkable a screen
talent he can be: Slipping seamlessly from low-key moroseness to a harsh bark,
it feels like Duvall has been slowly building up to this performance for years,
an incredible culmination of an age spent in lacklustre roles just waiting for
the right time to give everything he has. While Downey Jr. spends the
preliminary thirty minutes re-treading the Tony Stark shtick for which he is now
world-renowned, he slowly but surely grows into the role and by the finale has
become utterly believable.
Perhaps the most involving element of the film is also the
most problematic: there is a shift partway through the film where we discover
that Joseph is in the midst of a destructive illness, and in a moment of real
emotional resonance, he becomes reliant on Hank – the son who has detested him
for many years – to help him beyond the proceedings of the court case. It’s a refreshingly
honest moment that for some may be difficult to watch, but is all the more
admirable for it. What a shame it is then, that moments like these are so often
juxtaposed by sequences of sugary, saccharine predictability that threaten to
drag the picture down.
The more unfortunate side effect of this clashing tone is
that the running time is stretched to a ludicrous one-hundred and forty
minutes, which – combined with the dashing of schmaltz – brings to mind an image
of the director eyeing up an Academy Award. By the time you reach the final
hour your brain has gone with it but you’ve probably lost the feeling in your lower
back. It feels even more astonishing that the film feels so languorous considering
that (thankfully) it doesn’t feel the need to stop every five minutes and
explain the courtroom jargon to the audience.
Luckily, there are a number of much better-handled elements
throughout that distract from the dragging run-time, predominantly the likeable
yet understated score by Thomas Newman, and a performance of ‘The Scientist’ by
Willie Nelson brings the right level of melancholy as the credits roll. There
is also much to admire in the cinematography, the deep shadows and harsh
lighting bringing to mind the sensibility of a noir piece, and I for one would
argue that the movie may even work altogether better in monochrome.
While many moments have the ‘for your consideration’ feel to
them, the massively watchable performances prevent The Judge from slipping into the realms of over-hyped and
uninteresting Oscar bait. Duvall has never been better, and Downey Jr. is
slowly extending his forte beyond wisecracking. There’s predictability and
schmaltz in spades, but so handsomely mounted and involving is the drama that
it won’t be denied.
3 stars
