With some restraint, no one here quotes Matthew 7:1: judge not, that ye be not judged. It’s the only rhetorical stop that isn’t pulled out in this grandstanding movie: part family drama, part Grisham-style courtroom gripper. Robert Downey Jr is Hank Palmer, smartmouth big-city lawyer, notorious for ensuring rich guilty assholes get off scot free. Hank is lonely, smug and in dire need of reconnecting with small-town values. Then he must return to the family nest for an encounter with his glowering dad, a grumpy, ailing old judge whose fierce discipline messed up his son. He is Joseph Palmer, played with sidewinder cunning and charm by Robert Duvall.
Sensationally, the old widower has just been arrested for murder, and the only lawyer who can conceivably get him off is his silver-tongued son, whose amoral wiles the father has always found repugnant. To save his dad from the joint, they’ll have to heal ancient wounds. There are plenty of emotional fireworks in this big, soupy but entertaining picture, which is obvious Oscar bait. When Hank has to help his old man in the bathroom, in one very heartrending scene, the words “Academy Award – for your consideration” virtually flash in the bottom right corner of the screen.
