The Judge

What would you do if you, as a teenager, entangled yourself in a lot of legal messes, such as a car accident that ruined your older brother’s chances to play professional baseball?

What if your father stood in constant disapproval, and he served as a judge to boot?

You might become a criminal defense attorney and spend your days defending metaphorical versions of yourself to a metaphorical version of your father, as does Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.)

Note the last name. The writers didn’t imagine it without a reason.

Hank possesses marital issues, work issues, and social issues. He hides behind a mask of indifference, ego, and money. He spends his days in pursuit of redemption for others, when what he so sorely requires remains his own redemption.

When we first meet Hank, he urinates on a criminal prosecutor. Seriously.

Hank discovers himself called back to his childhood hometown when his father (Robert Duvall) faces murder charges.

The trial (and the funeral of Hank’s mother) reunites the entire family for a volcanic intervention in which they must confront their pasts.

One such scene occurs during (what else?) a tornado, the embodiment of chaos and destruction.

Many filmmakers confuse “courtroom drama” with “legal thriller.” Differences exist. A legal thriller requires that the writers make the relevant, legal procedures understood in detail.

Courtroom dramas provide drama within a courtroom setting ideal for a movie with a moral premise based around judgment and redemption.

Samuel L. Jackson didn’t stand on trial in Rules of Engagement so much as everyone with a conscience burdened by the deaths of our wars' bystanders.

We didn’t need a longwinded explanation of courtroom procedures; Engagement had as much to do with courtroom procedures as Pearl Harbor had with nautical terminologies.

Many movies with a promise remain between now and 2015, but I feel certain that The Judge and Guardians of the Galaxy (Yes, I put those in the same category) will tie for the best movie of the year. That doesn’t serve as an Oscar prediction, mind you (mainly because those don’t offer ties).

Duvall and Downey prove perfect for these roles. The pace of this film feels smooth, the emotion speaks to the heart with the sort of raw honesty that works so well.

You shouldn’t miss this movie.