[Now for a "never mind the quality, feel the heft" movie bust.]
The Judge (2014) is an American drama film directed by David Dobkin, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Robert Duvall.
In the end, seemingly invincible hard-ball, conscience-free defence lawyer of the guilty rich, Robert Downey, Jr. is reconciled with his estranged, disapproving, hard-ass small-town provincial judge father, Robert Duvall, after unsuccessfully defending him against a hit-and-run manslaughter charge, which sees Duvall briefly incarcerated, before compassionate parole allows him to die on a fishing trip, in the company of Downey, who Duvall now recognises to be the best lawyer he has ever met.
Returning to his home-town for his mother's funeral, Downey is forced to defend the most uncompliant and self-incriminating client of his career, when his terminally ill father is accused of the murder of a recently released felon he had once shown uncharacteristic leniency to in court, only for the man to then commit brutal murder, immediately on his release.
Of course, there is considerably more detail decorating David Dobkin's A Few Good Men (1992) in Steel Magnolias (1989) clothing (with a dash of Rain Man (1988)) concoction than this plot bust would suggest, no doubt meant to invest characters with the audience. Backers and actors, alike, may have even got a whiff of award potential from the dis-functional family scenario, and the serially re-written script's surfeit of crackling one-liners. But Downey and his spouse's production amounts to little more than daytime television viewing, albeit with a stellar cast. In the end, though, it is Thomas Newman's jauntily incongruous incidental music that sucks the tension out of Dobkin's first dramatic outing, which could have done with a few more good men and a lot less rain magnolias.
[Best line in the movie is delivered by Denis O'Hare: [to Downey] "Wow, it's not just an act. You really are that unpleasant."]
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Judge_(2014_film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Few_Good_Men
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_Magnolias
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_Man
