*1/2 (out of four)
At the risk of siding with formula, legal dramas are supposed to have twists. And big closing arguments.
“The Judge” doesn’t even have closing arguments, and it’s about as twisty as a flagpole. It’s also another movie featuring a hotshot attorney going from the big city to a small town and condescending to the local populace. Returning to his hometown of Carlinville, Ind. after the death of his mother, high-priced Chicago lawyer Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) soon uses his mile-a-minute mouth to outsmart rough, law-breakin’ townies in a bar, where he inevitably makes out with the pretty young bartender (Leighton Meester). Not surprisingly, the man who hasn’t been home in decades doesn’t plan to stay long. Then his estranged father (Robert Duvall), a judge with 42 years on the bench, becomes the defendant in a murder trial. Because Carlinville only has country bumpkins for defense attorneys (Dax Shepard), Hank must help the man he long ago put in the rearview mirror.
Though it vaguely resembles a John Grisham-esque legal thriller, “The Judge” has nothing to do with that author. It comes from director David Dobkin, he of the overrated “Wedding Crashers” and justifiably disregarded “Fred Claus” and “The Change-Up.” Had he put a few change-ups into—and taken lame jabs at humor out of—his new film, Dobkin might have kept brains half-occupied while watching two veteran Roberts do their thing.
At a stupidly bloated 141 minutes, though, “The Judge” offers only conventional plot developments treated with a shrug. It wastes time with Hank’s ex (Vera Farmiga), who still lives in town and is as available as Rose Byrne’s similarly cliched character in “This is Where I Leave You.” Meanwhile, Downey Jr. and Duvall have no chance at turning characters that suit them too well (snarky jackass who works too much; uncompromising hardass) into a specific depiction of complicated family relationships and guilt-motivated atonement.
Late in “The Judge” an opportunity arises to color what’s come before and address how emotion sometimes can blind people to loopholes in a trial. The movie 100-percent ignores this idea, continuing to coast instead of turning the screws and examining shades of gray in characters or their actions. A good, knotty courtroom proceeding can be fun beach reading, but “The Judge” makes you want to put your eyes back on the water.
Watch Matt review the week’s big new movies Fridays at 11:30 a.m. on NBC.
mpais@tribune.com
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