The Judge

 

Hank Palmer (Downey), a prominent Chicago defence attorney, receives a call while in court notifying him that his mother has died. He hurries to his hometown for the burial, then stays longer when his father is charged with murder. The Judge is an excellent example of painstakingly developed character representations and a film that develops up each of the key characters over the course of the film.

 

Hank's mother's death reopens longstanding scars in his family. While still standing behind his mother's coffin, older brother Glen (D'Onofrio) hurls nasty, cruel insults at Hank. Strong, the youngest brother, is a simpleton with a childish naivety who spends much of his time shooting home films. Joseph Palmer, his father, is a difficult nut to crack but a fascinating figure nevertheless. He is a traditional father and a straight-forward judge. He believes Hank abandoned his family in order to concentrate on his job. With his harsh, obnoxious tone, Joseph makes this perfectly plain. As a result, Hank's mother's death shines a light on the Palmer family's prior unity and contemporary division.

 

Hank is brash, self-assured, and boastful (to one coworker, he brags about his wife's firm derrière "of a cheerleader"), but underneath the bravado ("You can't afford me," he blurts out to another), he is a man who will now weather all vagaries with his family. The plot takes a fresh turn after an accident one night. As his father is charged with hit-and-run (perhaps DUI) murder and faces a lengthy jail term, Hank may be the only one who can defend him in court, especially when the prosecution's seasoned lawyer Dwight (Thornton) is dead set on winning. At the same time, he rediscovers his origins and even reconnects with an old sweetheart.

 

This is a story contained within the deceptively simple parenthesis of a small-town family bonding story. Downey and Duvall, of course, steal the show.