BEYOND REASONABLE
Father- son dynamic put on trial in family courtroom drama
Hollywood could hardly ask for a better setting for drama than the courtroom. You’ve got strong personalities speaking elevated language in defence ( or prosecution) of the basest of human emotions and actions. What more could you want?
A lot, apparently, in the hands of co- writer and director David Dobkin, whose credits include the much less judicial Wedding Crashers and The Change- Up. There’s a subplot of family dysfunction and possible reconciliation, and an entire romantic side story to boot. It’s no wonder the film runs 143 minutes. This is a case where time off would constitute good behaviour.
The Judge opened the Toronto International Film Festival in September and proved a crowd- pleasing kickoff, with a pair of A- list Roberts — Downey Jr. and Duvall — bringing their A game to the story of a smalltown judge accused of murder.
Downey Jr. does his usual egomaniacal, motormouth thing as Hank Palmer, a Chicago defence lawyer with a reputation of getting rich, guilty people off the hook. “Innocent people can’t afford me,” he breezily tells opposing council, and chides his clients: “Do I tell you how to commit fraud?”
Things take a turn for the serious when he gets news that his mother has died. Hank hightails it to tiny Carlinville, Ind., for the funeral and an awkward reunion with the rest of his family, none of whom seem to like him very much.
Brothers Glen ( Vincent D’Onofrio, playing the responsible one) and Dale ( Jeremy Strong, channelling Rain Man) make a show of being civil, but Judge Palmer ( Duvall) can barely give his son the time of day.
Much of this seems to rest on how the old man prides himself on being stern but fair, whereas Hank will play any trick within the letter of the law to get his clients to walk. There’s more to their long- standing enmity, of course — there always is — although I object to the overuse of sepia- coloured flashbacks to fill us in.
More mysterious is just what happened on the dark and rainy night when Judge Palmer went for a drive and came home with a dented fender — and leaving behind the body of a local nogoodnik, recently out of jail for a murder that Palmer feels he might have stopped if he’d given the guy a tougher sentence for an earlier crime.
It’s either delayed justice/ vengeance or one heck of a coincidence, and Billy Bob Thornton steps in as prosecutor Dwight Dickham, as evil as that name implies and determined to find the old man guilty.
Judge Palmer claims he can’t recall the crucial moments of his drive, and there are good reasons why not — but equally good reasons, even noble ones, why he might not want to tell the whole truth and nothing but.
It falls to Hank, stepping in after a local part- time lawyer proves woefully out of his league, to untangle his father’s motives and state of mind, and hopefully keep him from spending what remains of his life behind bars.
Stepping into the romantic subplot is Vera Farmiga as Samantha, the woman who carried a torch when Hank went off to law school. She’s still tending bar in the same local watering hole all these years later, but now with a grown- up daughter ( Leighton Meester). I’m guessing the studio wanted a female presence, and these characters fit the bill.
That may sound cynical, but the law trades in cynicism and reasonable doubt, and the film captures such moments nicely. I’m wavering about whether to sentence it to three stars or a little more, and in good faith I’m going to choose leniency.