Screening report on "The Judge"

The Judge – A Family Drama

The Judge (2014), a film directed by David Dobkin is a family drama which presents to its audience the tension between son and father. Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) is a successful defense attorney in Chicago and who has been estranged from his family. His father, Joseph Palmer (Robert Duvall) is a judge in a small town in Indiana, although he takes his position because of veneration. Many years had passed since they talked to each other and even a family tragedy is not able to calm the tension down between them. As Hank goes back to his birthplace to take part in his mother’s funeral, hatred and bitterness reaches its peak. One day, a mysterious murder takes its place in the flow of events. Joseph is accused of having run over a young man with whom he has had a trial before. By this unexpected turn, the judge becomes the defendant who needs a strong proof of his innocence. However, it would be difficult to prove this, as he has committed the murder. Hank believes that he would be able to help his father to avoid getting into prison and Joseph accepts his benevolence, though unwillingly. From the defense’s point of view, there is only one fact that can make Hank’s work easier: his father is under constant medical treatment that could have influenced his discernment at that night. Although their victory is not complete, the son and father end up in the state of agreement and kindness towards each other. Finally, they have learnt how they can trust in family members and that there is place for reconsidering family values.

The film itself raises several questions of everyday life. The events taking place in it can be present in anybody’s life, concerning family, profession, reconsideration, or identity. The Judge is structured in a way that the answers to these issues appear when nobody would expect them. Sudden and unexpected turning points throughout the movie make it more coloured, and as a result, the tension does not decrease in the viewers’ senses. It is constantly there. The audience cannot really decide whom to support or sympathise with, which makes them paying continuous attention to the film. True to the genre, this drama has a solution at the end that calms everybody down by a happy-ending, though.