The Judge (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Hotshot defense lawyer Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) returns to his small hometown for his mother's funeral.

He hasn't been home for years because he can't get along with his father Joseph (Robert Duvall) who is a judge there. Hank had crashed a car when he was in school, injuring older brother Glen's (Vincent D'Onofrio, strangely looking like Brian Dennehy) pitching arm and destroying what might have been a promising baseball career. Joseph has never forgiven Hank for his recklessness.

During his few days home, Hank continues to argue with Joseph, but manages to rekindle his friendship with old school sweetheart Samantha Powell (Vera Farmiga).

After the funeral, Joseph is arrested for the hit-and-run murder of a man who had just been released from prison. A man that Joseph had previously sentenced too leniently and had gone on to kill the man's girlfriend.

Hank extends his stay and insists on defending Joseph but Joseph chooses an inexperienced local lawyer instead, thinking that Hank's big-city tactics are dishonest. The local lawyer is no match for prosecutor Dwight Dickham (Billy Bob Thornton) and Joseph is forced to let Hank defend him.

***

The Judge is On Golden Pond meets courtroom drama. It's an engrossing mix that works, with maybe two-thirds family drama and one-third courtroom drama.

The first 30 minutes or so of the movie are all about Hank and his family. It is only after this extended introduction that the courtroom drama kicks in. And even after that, Joseph's legal problems never overshadow Hank's attempts to reconnect with his family and hometown.

There is some detailed and believable legal sparring between Hank and Dwight Dickham, but this serves more to shore up Hank's credentials as a skilled, ruthless lawyer than to serve as the main course.

This means that The Judge is more family drama than courtroom thriller, in spite of what the publicity material might imply.

The script - from Bill Dubuque, writer/director David Dobkin (Jack the Giant Slayer) and Nick Schenk (Gran Torino) - is solid. Despite a 141 minute run time, the movie never feels slow.

The movie has a modern sensibility and avoids cliches. There are few simple resolutions. Father and son do manage to reconcile somewhat, but not fully. Joseph's and Samantha's renewal of their relationship is not fairytale-perfect. It all feels very real.

But the main reason to watch The Judge would be the cast. Robert Downey Jr. is enough for me to want to watch. Robert "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" Duvall too? That moves the needle up to Must Watch. Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton and Vincent D'Onofrio? Icing on the cake.

Not to be forgotten is cinematographer Janusz Kaminski - Spielberg's go-to guy. Today's standards are so high that you don't need a big name like Kaminski to get great lighting. The reason cinematographer stars like him are significant (at least to me) is that they have the clout to choose their projects, ensuring a certain level of quality in the scripts that they do choose.

Allow me to pat myself on the back for noticing something special about the lighting. I didn't know who the cinematographer was until I saw the end credits, but I did notice that the lighting was good. Soft, directional light, raking the actors' face almost parallel to the planes of their face. This gives a 3D modeling effect. It's a subtle effect. Most people won't notice it.

When I saw that it was Kaminski, I went "woo hoo!" because I was right - someone exceptional had lit the movie. You get beautiful lighting that looks natural. Except maybe for the courtroom. It's too dark. Looks good, but a real courtroom would be nice and bright - flat, ugly lighting.

For another recent example of a star cinematographer at work, look at Dwayne Johnson's Hercules. That's Dante Spinotti's work. He has lit five Michael Mann movies. I also noticed something special about the lighting in Hercules before knowing who the cinematographer was - subtle fill light in the shadows, revealing details of the actors' body and clothes.

The Judge is a good movie, getting a 7.8/10 on IMDB. The strange thing is that it only gets a 45% critics' average on Rotten Tomatoes.