A new twist on ‘Doc Hollywood’

by Willie Krischke

I was surprised when I got to the Gaslight to find that it had nearly sold out the Friday afternoon showing of “The Judge.” When I bought my ticket, the cashier told me it was “one of those movies.”

“The Judge” opens with pretty standard, generic red state/blue state tension. Robert Downey Jr. is a well-to-do Chicago lawyer who successfully defends guilty clients. He had abandoned his small town Indiana roots. Robert Duvall plays his father, a judge in that small town, who hasn’t spoken to his son for years. Though the film never gets political, it wouldn’t be hard to guess which one voted for Obama, and which one is still waiting for Obama to produce a legitimate birth certificate.

Downey Jr. comes home for his mother’s funeral, and his old man will barely shake his hand. He’s not going to stay any longer than he has to, but literally while he’s on the plane, his brother (Vincent D’Onofrio) calls him back to defend his father, who is the primary suspect in a murder. So he goes back.

But this isn’t “Doc Hollywood” – yet another film about the redemption of the city boy’s soul through old-fashioned small town people and rock solid morality. Part courtroom drama part tearjerker, “The Judge” is more concerned with its people than its plot. Director David Dobkin skillfully intersperses big, scenery-chewing scenes with smaller, more telling moments, such as when – while complaining about what an old bastard his father is – Downey Jr. immediately sits up straight and takes his feet off the furniture when Duvall enters the room.

There is, however, way too much going on here. The film is bloated at 2½ hours, and there are a number of subplots that could be removed to simplify the story and even out the tone. We don’t really need to know about Downey’s daughter, or his crumbling marriage, and while Vera Farmiga is nice as a high school flame interested in rekindling, the paternity plot – and the ridiculous, nonsensical left turn it takes at the end – aren’t necessary.

The real joy here is watching a stable of talented actors and actresses. Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall are on opposite ends of the acting spectrum – the first all acerbic wit and splatter of words; the second slow, silent and commanding with his stillness – and it’s great to see them play off each other. I haven’t seen Duvall this invested in a role since “The Apostle,” and that was almost 20 years ago. As for Robert Downey Jr., he’s gotten so wrapped up in big-budget franchise roles (“Iron Man,” “Sherlock Holmes”) that I’d forgotten what a good actor he can be when he wants to.

There’s great work done by the supporting cast, too. Farmiga plays the high school sweetheart with a measured confidence and just a tinge of world weariness that sets Downey Jr.’s edgy city act in a profound new light. Maybe it wasn’t necessary to escape Indiana in order to be happy. And D’Onofrio is solid as Downey Jr.’s older brother, a washed-up baseball star who now owns a tire store.

“The Judge” probably features too many big, emotional scenes, and as it goes on, it gets away from itself, until the final scenes in a courtroom seem imported from a much lesser film. For one thing, the lawyers and witnesses get away with things – big dramatic moments – that would never be allowed. This may have worked in the days of “Perry Mason,” but in these days of “The Good Wife” and “Law & Order,” audiences know better. More than once, I nearly jumped from my seat and cried “Objection! Badgering the witness!”

What’s interesting, though, is the way the film undermines and plays against that old “Doc Hollywood” formula. The city son’s latent goodness is revealed when he needs to defend and care for his father; that was to be expected. But it becomes clear that the country father hasn’t quite been playing by the rules either. He has hidden a serious illness from the court, knowing that if it were ever found out, all of the trials he presided over would be declared mistrials. Frankly, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to side with him or against him – should he be allowed to keep his legacy? Isn’t it tainted by this secret, and shouldn’t cases be re-tried if the judge presiding over them was suffering from dementia? The city son may be using the legal system to thwart and miscarry justice for his own benefit in the big city, but the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. The country father is doing the same thing in slightly different way.

On the way out of the theater, I noticed that most of my fellow moviegoers were over 50. Maybe that’s what makes it “one of those movies.” It’s true, this one is geared to the AARP crowd; it’s being described by other reviewers as conventional, earnest and sincere. I don’t consider any of those words necessarily negative (I’d rather see an earnest movie than a cute one.) I hope younger audiences will give it a chance. It’s not slick and sexy, but it’s got charms of its own.