Review by Joseph Anthony
Imagine the guy who directed FRED CLAUSE,
SHANGHAI KNIGHTS, WEDDING CRASHERS and helped write R.I.P.D., David Dobkin, made a courtroom
drama. Okay, imagine no longer. It’s happened and it’s called THE JUDGE.
To call THE JUDGE a courtroom drama isn’t totally fair
though. Most of the drama revolves around a broken family, the Palmers. Son,
Hank Palmer, played by Robert Downey Jr., is a big-city lawyer who thrives on
defending society's most corrupt. His father, Judge Joseph Palmer (Robert
Duvall) has presided over a small town in Indiana for over four decades. Unlike
his son, Judge Palmer is guided by principle. While both father and son have
turned to the law in their professional lives, the bonds that tie them together
as family had been severed for years. Hank calls his father “Judge” as lovingly
as a military recruit calls his superiors “sir.”
